Financial Times
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Meet Japan’s drunken demon painter
It would happen something like this. First, Kawanabe Kyōsai gulped down a couple of litres of warmed sake — to get the artistic juices flowing — while his assistant prepared bowls of pigment and animal glue. Then, suitably drunk, the painter prostrated himself before a roll of rice paper. Loading a fat brush with ink, Kyōsai dragged it across the absorbent canvas in swift, soft-edged strokes. The surface buckled as buffoonish heroes and boozy trolls took shape, soaking into the paper: a world set in motion by the intoxicating spirits.