Daikoku with rats pulling a radish mikoshi

Maker(s)
Artist: Kawanabe Kyōsai 河鍋暁斎 (1831-1889)
Historical period(s)
Meiji era, 1831-1912
Medium
Ink and color on paper
Dimensions
H x W: 26.7 x 38.8 cm (10 1/2 x 15 1/4 in)
Geography
Japan
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1975.29.5
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Album, Drawing
Type

Album leaf

Keywords
Daikoku, Japan, Meiji era (1868 - 1912), radish, rat
Provenance
Provenance research underway.
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 Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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