The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons 1892

Curator: Before us we have Tachibana Gado’s *The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons*, a drawing from 1892 rendered with ink and colored pencil. What are your initial impressions? Editor: A riot of form and color! There’s something carnivalesque about it, and simultaneously unsettling. These figures...they feel ancient, pulled from the depths of collective memory. Curator: It’s a marvelous glimpse into Japanese folklore, wouldn’t you agree? Look closely at how Gado has applied the coloured pencil. What does that evoke to you? Editor: Absolutely. When you focus on the texture, you start to realize that there are numerous creatures here, almost playfully composed with an aesthetic rooted in *ukiyo-e*. I am struck by how accessible it makes the otherworldly. You see an engagement with class and status. Curator: Yes, very perceptive! What do you mean? Editor: The depiction of the demons—these are not noble spirits or gods. These are the disgruntled, the marginalized. It almost functions as a social critique. Demons riding tortoises – it speaks to the inversion of the status quo, the temporary breakdown of hierarchies. Curator: An interesting way of seeing the procession through social strata... I wonder, considering Gado's position at the time, do you feel he was advocating, perhaps subtly, for a similar unraveling? Editor: It's tough to say definitively with the limited historical material available on him, isn't it? Art never exists in a vacuum though – we have to understand the socio-political context that informs Gado’s worldview. In the Meiji era there was increasing emphasis on modernization at the expense of some traditional elements. Was the intention just observation? Critique? A lament? Perhaps a bit of everything. Curator: A cultural snapshot of shifting values. Well, whatever the purpose, Gado certainly provides an intriguing insight into a fascinating mythological tapestry, rendered through tangible materials. Editor: I agree. I feel a strange kind of resonance looking at this, especially the depiction of creatures seemingly abandoned to their own chaotic devices.