Skeleton Arranging Flowers, c. 19th century. Medium: Ink on paper. Collection: Kawanabe Kyōsai Memorial Museum, Saitama.⁣
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In this piece, drawn in black ink on paper by Kawanabe Kyōsai, we see a skeleton arranging flowers.⁣
When Kyōsai was just nine years old, he found a severed human head while wandering along the banks of the flooded Kanda River. Most children would've run away from a sight like that. He, however, pulled the head out of the water, took it home, and spent days studying and sketching its decaying anatomical details until his family found out.⁣
In later years, as his painting talent gained recognition in the Japanese art community, Kyōsai would earn the nickname *The Painting Demon