May: Shoki the Demon Queller Riding on a Tiger, Subjugating Goblins, from the series "Of the Twelve Months: the Fifth (Junikagetsu no uchi: gogatsu)" 1887

Curator: What a vibrant explosion of action! The energy just leaps right off the page. Editor: Precisely! We’re looking at "May: Shoki the Demon Queller Riding on a Tiger, Subjugating Goblins, from the series 'Of the Twelve Months'," a color woodblock print designed around 1887 by Kawanabe Kyōsai. Currently, it resides here at The Art Institute of Chicago. It strikes me as a study in contrasts. Curator: Tell me more about these contrasts, because the first thing I see is sheer pandemonium, but I could believe it has underlying structure I'm not grasping yet. Editor: On one level there's overt chaos, but if you look at it as two distinct, but connected spatial environments: On the left, the Goblins with an almost Baroque abundance and movement. Then there's the contrasting forward thrust of Shoki on the right—all sharp angles and forward motion on that fearsome tiger. Curator: So, Shoki the demon queller, like a fearsome exterminator? What’s he really getting rid of, though? Editor: Traditionally, Shoki is invoked to ward off evil spirits and disease. The goblins represent these malevolent forces, anything from personal demons to societal ills. The tiger too, is more than a just a mount; its ferocity amplifies Shoki’s power and unwavering focus on overcoming evil. It embodies protection against disease but it's interesting that tiger and demon get interchanged as well as stand for an auspicious symbol too. Curator: It all makes so much more sense when you understand what each bit means! It is beautiful too—there's this sense of motion, everything in the print seems fluid, poised between worlds. What kind of process brings something like that into being, using a medium like woodblock print? Editor: The process is fascinating. Think of layering the blocks, color by color. And remember, wood doesn’t exactly yield to the artist’s vision without a struggle. It’s this very tension, this delicate balancing act, that imparts the print its life, and maybe it gives a window into its cultural underpinnings and historical circumstances of production? Curator: Hmm. Maybe art making is always its own form of demon quelling. Editor: Perhaps that is a thought worth holding onto as you move on to the next work!