KAWANABE KYŌSAI (1831-1889)
Smashing Tofu
Meiji era (1868-1912), 1876
A hanging scroll in ink and colors on silk of a kitchen worker using a mallet to smash a block of tofu, splattering a female colleague with fragments of bean curd, signed at left Meiji ku hinoe-ne natsu Kyōsai ga (Painted by Kyōsai in summer 1876) with a seal
With a blank wood box and cardboard sleeve
25 1/4 x 17 1/4in (64 x 43.8cm)
Footnotes:
Provenance
Gallery Herbert Egenolf, Düsseldorf, Germany and Venice, California

Published
Tokyo Shinbun, Kyōsai no giga, kyōga (Comic Genius: Kawanabe Kyōsai), Tokyo, Tokyo Shinbun, 1996, cat. no. 181

The unusual painting, an outstanding example of Kyōsai's anarchic, humorous style with facial expressions that recall certain figure prints and paintings of Hokusai, is based on the proverb Tōfu ni kasugai (Clamping beancurd), referring to any kind of useless endeavor (compare our 'Herding cats'). With characteristic exaggeration, Kyōsai has the male figure not just try to clamp the block of soft curd but smash both clamps and curd with a large mallet, much to the dismay of a co-worker.