This starkly contrasting image, filled with wild phenomena like lightning, giant waves, flames and smoke, showcases the unique traits of woodblock print. Using the artist’s words, the picture depicts the conflict between the “modern rational society” of office workers using their calculators and bank books as shields, and the “irrational world” of sorcerers and toads who spew a kind of “hypno gas” that lulls people into a lazy stupor. Kazama Sachiko created this work alone at home. Can you spot the child on the rooftop reading a comic book above a group of helmet-wearing students sitting in formation on top of a school timetable? That child is like the artist herself was, Kazama explains—unable to fit in with school life and spending her time reading and daydreaming. By depicting her in this work, Kazama shows that her art is in some ways an extension of her childhood fantasies.
(IIOKA Riku)