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Daikoku with rats pulling a radish mikoshi

Asian Art Museum

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Object Details

Artist

Kawanabe Kyosai 河鍋暁斎 (1831-1889)

Label

Lively sketches by the nineteenth-century artist Kawanabe Kyosai reveal the variety of traditional Chinese and Japanese legends that were popular in the Meiji era, when Japan was rapidly modernizing along Western technological models. Daikoku, a popular Chinese and Japanese deity associated with wealth, is shown with his bag and his messenger, the rat. Here his attendants busily pull a large white radish (daikon) that serves as a mikoshi, a movable shrine used in Shinto religious ceremonies to transport the spirit of a deity.
See also F1975.29.8 and F1975.29.12.

Collection

Freer Gallery of Art Collection

Exhibition History

Tales and Legends in Japanese Art (June 21, 2003 to January 4, 2004)
Japanese Drawings (March 16, 1984 to July 22, 1985)

Credit Line

Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

Date

1831-1912

Period

Meiji era

Accession Number

F1975.29.5

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Type

Album

Medium

Ink and color on paper

Dimensions

H x W: 26.7 x 38.8 cm (10 1/2 x 15 1/4 in)

Origin

Japan

Related Online Resources

Google Arts & Culture

See more items in

National Museum of Asian Art

Data Source

National Museum of Asian Art

Topic

Meiji era (1868 - 1912)
rat
Japan
radish
Daikoku
Japanese Art

Metadata Usage

Not determined

Link to Original Record

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ye34fbda7de-ba53-4728-b58b-7976bee06e33

Record ID

fsg_F1975.29.5

Discover More

Year of the Rat stamp.

2020: Year of the Rat

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