Image: Kobe City Museum
Kobe City Museum has highlighted a nishiki-e print by Kawanabe Kyosai depicting a voyage associated with Tokugawa shogun Tokugawa Iemochi. The work is being presented as part of the museum’s collection display, where it has drawn attention for its unusual combination of political subject matter and fantastical imagery.
The print relates to Iemochi’s journey to Kyoto in 1863, an event that prompted the production of numerous nishiki-e works. The museum’s note places Kyosai’s image within that larger body of prints made in response to the shogun’s journey, while focusing on the vessel connected with his travel.
Rather than presenting the ship as a strictly documentary scene, Kyosai fills the composition with supernatural figures. Foxes and Shōki appear in the sky above the vessel, described by the museum as watching over the safety of the voyage. Their presence gives the maritime scene a lively and unexpected character.
The contrast between the shogunate’s military vessel and the protective figures overhead is central to the museum’s presentation of the work. The image records a historical episode while also showing the imaginative possibilities available within nineteenth-century Japanese popular printmaking.
Kawanabe Kyosai is identified by the museum as the artist responsible for the print. The highlighted work is included in the Kobe City Museum’s collection display; the museum’s notice does not provide a title for the print or specify a separate exhibition period.
