Image: Kobe City Museum
Kobe City Museum has turned to Kawanabe Kyosai’s humorous demon imagery in a post published on 8 September 2026, highlighting a figure seriously cutting bonito while making preparations for hot sake.
The brief focus rests on the specificity of the demon’s activity: fish, a knife and the prospect of warmed sake. Kobe City Museum describes Kyosai’s demons as figures rendered with abundant human feeling, and the post identifies this particular demon as sake-loving.
The artist’s own sobriquet appears as a separate detail. Kyosai received the nickname Gaki—meaning painting demon—from his Kano-school teacher, Maemura Tōwa.
Calling Kyosai a lover of drink, the museum suggests that he may have thought of the similarly sake-loving demon as rather like himself. The suggestion remains playful and tentative, attached to the demon shown cutting bonito and preparing hot sake.
