Two Manzai Performers 漫才 | Kawanabe Kyōsai 河鍋暁斎 | 1831-1889

Kawanabe Kyōsai is one of Japan's most eccentric painters, who was able to express his absurd ideas masterfully. He became known in Europe relatively early on, as he was invited to international exhibitions in Vienna in 1873 and in Paris in 1883. There are many publications about him in Japan, and an entire museum is dedicated to him in Saitama Prefecture. 　

At a young age, Kyōsai studied under the respected woodcut artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi and later under the Kanō painter Dōhaku. His output was enormous. He did not allow himself to be co-opted by any school and is still considered an independent artistic personality today.

In this picture, two dancers/singers are out and about early in the morning at sunrise. Such traditional Manzai performers are a New Year's phenomenon - you can still see them today in rural areas, especially in northern Japan. They go from house to house and offer congratulatory songs and dances, which the landowners watch on their doorsteps and then pay them. Manzai wore formal, festive clothing and in earlier times also wore a matching hat.

In this picture, Kyōsai gives free rein to his urge for the grotesque. The singer with the drum is making rather rough sounds, and the upper dancer with the fan (on which the Buddhist "fragrant jewel" is painted) also has his mouth open so that it is difficult to imagine this duo performing anything musically sophisticated. But that is not to be expected from such fellows. They are talented, rural (badly shaven!) performers who want to entertain - not only with old songs, but also with jokes and wit. (Nowadays, manzai is understood to mean a team of two cabaret artists, because one means "diffuse", "unreasonable" etc. and zai means "talent", so manzai means "to present humorous things").

Despite all the expressive curved lines, the ingeniously quick brushstrokes and the fresh and free use of colors, there is a great formal discipline at work here - both figures are put together in a perfect large form; they are a real duo.