Comic One Hundred Turns of the Rosary

Kawanabe Kyosai turned a solemn Buddhist ritual into pure comedy with this 1870 woodblock print, "Comic One Hundred Turns of the Rosary." A giant string of prayer beads winds across all three panels, tying together a rowdy crowd of demons, ghosts, and ordinary people. The ritual it pokes fun at involves passing a huge rosary hand to hand while chanting, repeating the cycle one hundred times. Kyosai keeps the beads but swaps out the reverence, filling the scene instead with a wide-eyed skull-faced spirit, a snarling warrior, and figures flailing about in every direction.

Kyosai trained under the respected Kano school but was never much for its rules, and he built his name on wit and a bold, loose brush. He worked during a period when Japan was throwing open its doors to the outside world, and that restless energy shows up in the tumbling chaos of his figures. Panicked faces, tangled limbs, and little visual gags hide in the corners of the composition, rewarding anyone who lingers over the mess.

The charm of the print comes from its cheerful disrespect. Rather than treating spirits and holy practices with hushed seriousness, Kyosai lets them crash together in a heap of motion and mischief, proving that Japanese art of the past had plenty of room for a good laugh.