Description:
ōban tate-e; nishiki-e
Label Text:
This enchanted cat’s face is a composite of several smaller cats, with its eyes made of two cat bells and its mouth the thick ribbon collar traditionally worn by domestic cats in Japan. The subject is taken from a kabuki play about a famous landmark: a cat-shaped stone, located next to a temple in the village of Okabe, one of 53 post-stations on the Tōkaidō Road. It was believed that a cat witch, disguised as a friendly old woman, once haunted the temple grounds, luring young girls into her house to kill and devour them. Eventually, the witch's evil transformed her into the “cat stone,” which remains in Okabe to this day. The slashes across this print create an energy that, coupled with the vicious expression on the cat’s face, makes the figure seem to leap out at the viewer.
BB, ed., 2015
Tags:
cats; animals; faces; patterns; eye; nose; supernatural Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1996.134 |
