Item from the Mokuhankan Flea Market

Spider and Evening Cicada on a Corn

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$ 95.00£ 70.50€ 82.50 [Item has been sold]

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 evening cicada climbs delicately along the leaves of a corn plant, while a large spider rests in her web on the right side of the composition.

The accompanying kyōka on the left reads: When no one is watching, we secretly embrace, and you cry like an evening cicada.
Sneaking into a lady’s boudoir, the unclothed man resembles a spider going to the nest.

The poem playfully links the cicada’s plaintive cry and the spider’s hidden movement to a scene of clandestine romance.

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