Item from the Mokuhankan Flea Market

Katydid and Centipede

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$ 88.00£ 66.00€ 75.50 [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 a katydid walks gracefully along a long leaf, while a centipede crawls along the branch of a flowering plant to the left.

The accompanying kyoka on the right reads:

Every night I sob like the sounds of the grasshopper and my heart misses you.

I wish I were the cure for the centipede bite to be melted by your saliva.

The poem uses the insects as erotic metaphors, comparing unfulfilled desire to a bite needing healing, with the lover’s kiss imagined as both remedy and surrender.

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