Susano-o and Amaterasu 1832

Curator: Standing before us is Aoigaoka Keisei’s print, "Susano-o and Amaterasu," a striking woodblock of about 8 1/4 by 14 1/2 inches, currently residing at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: My first thought? Raw power. You can almost feel the tension rippling off the warrior’s stance and that dragon...it's ominous. Curator: That is Susano-o, the storm god. Note how the artist depicts him poised, sword in hand, confronting the monstrous dragon. The bowls of sake in the foreground are crucial, symbols of his strategy to intoxicate and ultimately defeat the beast. Editor: The dragon itself is a fascinating symbol. Its presence speaks to chaos, but it also represents the cyclical nature of destruction and renewal inherent in the storm god's domain. See how the claws are reaching... quite foreboding. Curator: Indeed, and it's the interplay of these mythic figures—Susano-o, the dragon—that suggests the eternal struggle between order and chaos within the cosmos. Editor: It seems like Keisei is tapping into something primal here, an archetype of heroic struggle, of facing the darkness head-on. I feel strangely invigorated. Curator: Precisely, a potent reminder that even amidst turmoil, there’s the potential for transformation, for the storm to clear and reveal a new dawn.