Item from the Mokuhankan Flea Market

Bagworm and Horned Scarab Beetle

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$ 96.00£ 70.00€ 82.00 [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, a horned scarab beetle is poised atop a cluster of green leaves, gazing toward a bagworm suspended from the branch of a pink-flowered plant.

The accompanying kyoka on the left reads:

The darkness of night hides my affection and I can’t tell which way is West.

If I do not love, I will not even be reborn as a beetle whose threads are split and ruined.

This verse playfully uses the insects as metaphors for emotional complexities of love such as desire and uncertainty.

This version is a post-war reproduction by the Ukiyoe Hanga Kankokai.

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