猫と鼠, 暁斎 Cat and Mouse, Kyōsai, Ukiyo-e Postcard

Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831 – 1889) was a Japanese artist, in the words of a critic, "an individualist and an independant, perhaps the last virtuoso in traditional Japanese painting".. Living through the Edo period to the Meiji period, Kyōsai witnessed Japan transform itself from a feudal country into a modern state. Born at Koga, he was the son of a samurai. After working for a short time as a boy with Utagawa Kuniyoshi, he received his artistic training in the Kanō school, but soon abandoned the formal traditions for the greater freedom of the popular school. During the political ferment which produced and followed the revolution of 1867, Kyōsai attained a reputation as a caricaturist. He was arrested three times and imprisoned by the authorities of the shogunate.