[Exhibition Report] Goldman Collection: The World of Kawanabe Kyosai | Captivated by Hell Courtesan
April 22 – June 21, 2026 | Suntory Museum of Art, Roppongi, Tokyo
A Single Painting That Holds Two Opposing Worlds
Motion and stillness.
Density and space.
Precision and distortion.
Intensity and whimsy.
East and West.
Standing before the works of Kawanabe Kyosai, these were the first things I felt. Opposing elements coexist within a single composition — naturally, without strain. And it is precisely that tension that pulls the viewer in.
About the Exhibition
This exhibition presents approximately 110 carefully selected works from the collection of Israel Goldman, a UK-based art collector whose holdings represent one of the world's finest collections of Kyosai's work. More than half of the pieces are being shown publicly in Japan for the first time — a genuinely rare opportunity.
Kawanabe Kyosai was born in 1831. He entered the studio of ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kuniyoshi at the age of seven, later undertaking rigorous training in the Kano school. Crossing multiple artistic traditions, he forged a style entirely his own — producing an extraordinary range of work spanning Buddhist paintings, depictions of supernatural beings, animal studies, and satirical cartoons. His reputation extended well beyond Japan: the French collector Émile Guimet acquired his works, and the British architect Josiah Conder became his devoted student. Conder's admiration continued through Kyosai's final years, and after the artist's death he wrote a scholarly study of his work — a relationship that went far beyond that of teacher and pupil.
Kawanabe Kyosai (Wikipedia)
The venue is the Suntory Museum of Art, located within Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi — easily accessible, and offering a calm, unhurried space in which to engage with the work.
Hell Courtesan — A Painting That Leaves You Speechless
The undisputed highlight of the exhibition is Hell Courtesan (Jigoku Dayu-zu). The pigments, applied with remarkable generosity, retain a vividness that makes the painting feel as though it was completed yesterday.
My eye was drawn first to the crimson of the courtesan's robe. It is a red that suggests blood — unsettling, yet impossible to look away from.
Look closer, and the fabric reveals an obsessively rendered vision of hell, surrounded by jagged coral branches. Yet the face of the woman wearing all of this is strikingly, almost impossibly, serene.
Beside her, the robes of the monk Ikkyū billow with movement, and the skeletons around them seem ready to step out of the frame entirely.
Motion and stillness. Density and space. Opposing forces hold each other in a strange equilibrium, forming a world unto itself.
Kyosai's gaze seems to take in life and death, heaven and hell, as equal expressions of the human condition — observed from the same distance, with the same quiet amusement. Perhaps it is our longing for that kind of equanimity — that freedom from attachment — that draws us to this work.
Many of Kyosai's paintings passed from the Japanese collector Fukutomi Taro into Goldman's hands, and this painting was among them. Having traveled from Japan to the United Kingdom, carefully preserved across the years by collectors and curators alike — for that, I am deeply grateful.
Hell Courtesan (Wikipedia)
Fukutomi Taro (Wikipedia, Japanese)
A Line That Runs to Modern Anime
There was one more thing the paintings brought to mind: a deep kinship — both technical and spiritual — with contemporary Japanese animation and manga.
The way supernatural creatures are rendered. The fluid variation in line weight. The coexistence of humor and menace. The deliberate shifting between stylization and realism. Something in the visual language of 19th-century Kyosai feels strikingly familiar to anyone who has encountered modern Japanese animation — even if they cannot immediately say why.
I am no expert in anime. But the dynamism and character expression that Kyosai achieved through traditional Japanese painting techniques may well be one of the headwaters from which that whole tradition flows.
The Tokyo Run Ends Soon
The Tokyo exhibition closes on June 21, 2026 (Sunday).
The show will then travel to the Kobe City Museum (July 11 – September 23, 2026) and the Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art (October 10 – December 6, 2026).
Exhibition Information
- Exhibition: Goldman Collection: The World of Kawanabe Kyosai
- Tokyo Venue: Suntory Museum of Art | suntory.co.jp/sma
- Dates: April 22 – June 21, 2026
- Hours: 10:00–18:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays and select weekends/holidays)
- Closed: Tuesdays
- Admission: General ¥1,800 (door) / ¥1,600 (advance)
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Official Site: kyosai2026.exhibit.jp
Touring Venues
- Kobe: Kobe City Museum | July 11 – September 23, 2026 | Details
- Shizuoka: Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art | October 10 – December 6, 2026 | Details
Photography by Still Japan.
Please do not reproduce, republish, distribute, or use these images without prior permission, including for commercial purposes, dataset creation, or AI training. Thank you for respecting the artwork, the museum, and the photographer.
Bring Kyosai Into Your Everyday Life
At Still Japan, we offer a collection of T-shirts inspired by the works of Kawanabe Kyosai — a way to carry his world with you in daily life.