Item from the Mokuhankan Flea Market

Mole Cricket and Earwig

Size: 26.5cm by 38.0cm (10.43 in by 14.96 in) | Enlargement | Shipping Code: [L] ?

Designer: Kitagawa Utamaro

Era: Early Showa | Currency: $ / £ / €

Price: ¥ 12,000$ 94.00£ 69.25€ 80.00

  

Description: The print is from Utamaro's series Pictures of Insects (Ehon Mushi Erami); a collection of 15 designs of insects and other garden creatures that pairs various insects with humorous or suggestive poems (kyoka) reflecting on human behavior. The poems were written by Ishikawa Masamochi.

In this scene, an earwig perches atop a corn cob while a mole cricket crawls below, moving in the opposite direction. Delicate rose blossoms decorate the background.

The accompanying kyoka on the left reads:

I am as tender as the transient mole cricket forever thinking of you.

I am the earwig, so dull I can not even cut my own thoughts of love.

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