{"product_id":"jigoku-dayu-hell-courtesan-kawanabe-kyosai-copy","title":"Jigoku Dayu Hell Courtesan —  Kawanabe Kyōsai","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003eShe rests her head on one arm, eyes closed, expression serene. Around her, dozens of skeletons dance, drink, brandish fans, play instruments, and tumble through a swirling teal void — and she is entirely undisturbed. She is the Hell Courtesan. The chaos is not a nightmare. It is her world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eJigoku Dayū\u003c\/em\u003e is one of the defining images of Kawanabe Kyōsai's career — and one of the most layered compositions in Meiji-era printmaking. Every element carries meaning. The brilliant red robe that envelops her is a deliberate echo of Daruma, the Zen patriarch, whose colour and posture she mirrors — a pointed joke about the inability of even the holiest figures to resist her. On the lower part of her costume, barely visible among the folds, the King of Hell himself — Emma-Ō — peers out, as though he too is caught in her orbit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003eThe legend behind the image is ancient. Jigoku Dayū was a courtesan of legendary beauty and legendary cruelty — arrogant to her servants, contemptuous of her clients, indifferent to everyone around her. When she died, Emma-Ō punished her by forcing her to wear a kimono woven from the souls of the damned: skeletons, demons, the tortured dead, all writhing across the fabric of her robe as a permanent reminder of how she had treated others. In Kyōsai's hands, the punishment becomes a throne. The skeletons are festive. The Hell Courtesan has made her sentence her aesthetic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003eThe print belongs to the series \u003cem\u003eKyōsai rakuga\u003c\/em\u003e (Kyōsai's Drawings for Pleasure), a set of fifteen prints published in 1874 that satirise the upheavals of Meiji-era Japan through grotesque, supernatural, and comic imagery. Kyōsai had already been imprisoned for his political caricatures. Here, the critique is wrapped in folklore — irresistible to the authorities precisely because it was ungraspable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSeries:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eKyōsai rakuga\u003c\/em\u003e 暁斎楽画 (Kyōsai's Drawings for Pleasure)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDate:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1874\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Sawamuraya Seikichi\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Ōban colour woodblock print, approx. 35 × 23.5 cm\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCollections:\u003c\/strong\u003e Spencer Museum of Art (University of Kansas); multiple institutional collections worldwide\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003eMuseum-quality reproduction printed on thick archival paper. Shipped in a rigid protective tube, ready to frame.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wallango","offers":[{"title":"A3","offer_id":54620654469443,"sku":"P6794S","price":53.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A2","offer_id":54620654502211,"sku":"P6795S","price":61.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A1","offer_id":54620654534979,"sku":"P6796S","price":87.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"20\" x 30\" in","offer_id":54620654567747,"sku":"P6797S","price":79.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"24\" x 36\" in","offer_id":54620654600515,"sku":"P6798S","price":96.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"27\" x 40\" in","offer_id":54620654633283,"sku":"P6799S","price":105.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"30x40 cm","offer_id":54620654666051,"sku":"P6800S","price":53.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"50x70 cm","offer_id":54620654698819,"sku":"P6801S","price":70.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"70x100 cm","offer_id":54620654731587,"sku":"P6802S","price":105.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0730\/3810\/2851\/files\/JigokuDayuHellCourtesan_KawanabeKyosaiMockupwallango_posterseul.jpg?v=1783600956","url":"https:\/\/wallango.com\/en-ca\/products\/jigoku-dayu-hell-courtesan-kawanabe-kyosai-copy","provider":"Wallango ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}