#kyosai

Happy International Bat Appreciation Day!

Did you know that bats are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight? Their hand-like wings are formed from four elongated “fingers” covered by a cutaneous membrane. Pretty amazing!

Image: Bat with Young, 1881. Kyōsai Kawanabe (1831 – 1889) Plate from the illustrated book Kyōsai rankuga (Kyōsai’s Drawings for Pleasure)

能画圖式. 坤　河鍋暁斎 画　明治以降（稿本は1867年？） 国立国会図書館デジタルコレクション

飛越 腰折 さつまの守 右近左近 瞽女座頭（清水座頭）  賽の目 ひく定（比丘定） 宗八 丼礑（どぶかっちり） ろれん（呂蓮） ほねかは 人馬 白養 縄なひ 成上り 因幡堂 入間川 合柿 かくれ笠 鬼瓦 梟山伏 刀うばひ 花子 素襖落し 二千石 節分 棒しはり 伯母か酒 名取川 犬山伏 二人大名 子盗人 居喰 鎌はら 悪坊 ほん山（盆山） 朝比奈 墨ぬり 悪太郎 船渡聟 千鳥 瓜盗人 蛸 きかず座頭 鏡男 八尾 猿座頭 河原太郎 花取角力 ぬけから 柿山伏 宗論 文蔵 粟田口 武悪 大黒連歌 ぶす 雷 無布施経 八幡前 清水 佛師 金岡 鬮罪人

Kawanabe Kyōsai may not be as famous as other Japanese artists, but the Royal Academy claims he was one of the most exciting painters from Japan in the 19th century. From 19th March until 19th June 2022, the RA exhibited a large number of Kyōsai’s works belonging to the London-based art collector Israel Goldman (b.1958). Goldman has amassed an impressive collection of over 1,000 pieces of art by Kyōsai, including prints, paintings and sketches, which reveal Kyōsai’s witty imagination and exceptional skill.

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