Tanaka Shutei
Japanese, 1810-1858
Rice-Pounding Rabbit
INV-4338
Tanaka Shutei
Japanese, 1810-18581855
Rice-Pounding Rabbit
Tanaka Shutei Japanese, 1810-1858 →Japanese (culture or style)woodblock printprint
Date
1855
Medium
Color woodblock print; surimono
Dimensions
23.4 × 17.6 cm (9 1/4 × 6 15/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Charles H. Mitchell Collection unrestricted gift
This humorous scene of a rabbit pounding a mochi rice cake in a Chinese-style urn represents a sophisticated layering of narrative and pictorial traditions. In East Asian lore, rice cake–pounding rabbits are said to live on the surface of the moon. The artist Tanaka Shutei, an active printer and print designer in Osaka, also referenced a scene from the popular story of Kaguya Hime. He depicted Kaguya, a princess from the moon, in her lunar palace, peeking at the work of the rabbit. The rabbit heralded the arrival of both the year of the rabbit and the New Year in general, as rice cake pounding is an important activity at that time of year.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
Komurasaki of the Miuraya and Shirai Gompachi (Miuraya Komurasaki, Shirai Gompachi)
Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川 歌麿 Japanese, c.1753-1806
Hamamatsu, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido)
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重 Japanese, 1797-1858
Mitsuke: Ferries Crossing the Tenryu River (Mitsuke, Tenryugawa funawatashi), from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido)
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重 Japanese, 1797-1858
