Deadly Treatment of a Big Tooth, from the Series ‘Long Live Japan! One Hundred Selections, One Hundred Laughs’ 1904

Kobayashi Kiyochika made this woodblock print as part of the ‘Long Live Japan! One Hundred Selections, One Hundred Laughs’ series. Just look at how the artist coaxes out these soft hues from carved wood, how he balances the flat blocks of color with the delicate linework. The process is evident in the final image. The star here is the swirling energy of the dental patient's coattails, all frenetic lines and implied motion, as if this poor man is about to blast off into space from the dentist’s chair! This area is rendered with a kind of nervous energy, and the dark, almost violent lines contrast with the pastel shades of the rest of the scene. The dentist, with his intense expression and the patient, caught in a moment of high anxiety, the scene is both humorous and unsettling. The tension reminds me of some of Goya’s darker works. It's a reminder that art isn't just about what we see, but how we feel, and how artists can use simple materials to make us feel deeply.