• "Little boy playing hide-and-seek with his mother"
"Little boy playing hide-and-seek with his mother"
"Little boy playing hide-and-seek with his mother"
"Little boy playing hide-and-seek with his mother"
"Little boy playing hide-and-seek with his mother"
"Little boy playing hide-and-seek with his mother"
"Little boy playing hide-and-seek with his mother"
"Little boy playing hide-and-seek with his mother"
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Isoda Koryūsai (礒田湖龍斎) (artist )

"Little boy playing hide-and-seek with his mother"

Print

ca 1771
4.75 in x 26.375 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Koryūsai ga (湖龍斎画)
Harvard Museums - related print - boy with hare on outfit
Lyon Collection - related print
Metropolitan Museum of Art - boy with a different hare decoration by Koryūsai "Koriusai... is the supreme master of the pillar print; no one else has produced so many fine ones, and practically all his finest work is in this form... In one print... he dashes the intense black line of a screen down through the middle of his picture and sets the delicate eddies of a child's and a young girl's garments playing around its base."

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Look closely at the robe the young boy is wearing. The back of it is decorated with a hare, one of the Japanese zodiac creatures and an animal fraught with other forms of symbolism. In fact, the hare (or rabbit) is often paired with images of the moon and roiling waters as can be seen in standing screen in this print. Another interesting fact is that this boy, wearing the same clothes, appears in another unsigned print by Koryūsai in the Lyon Collection - #1352. That one is an erotic image in which this small boy and a slightly older girl are eavesdropping on a sexually engaged couple.

Now it appears that there is another example of a print in the Lyon Collection (#75) with this same hare motif, but this time in spades. It shows up on the robe of a woman by Kunisada created about 50 years later. Go to that print and use the enlarging tool to see what we are talking about.

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There is a Komai Yoshinobu egoyomi or calendar print for 1771 once owned by David Rockefeller that is illustrated in Undercurrents in the Floating World: Censorship and Japanese Prints. It shows two rabbits, one frolicking over some waves, the other sitting on a rock, with a huge moon looming over the horizon. This is what gave us the idea that we could narrow down the date of this print in the Lyon Collection to ca. 1771, the Year of the Hare.

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Rabbits gamboling on the waves: a classical motif

The curatorial files at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, when discussing a 16th century kuboto (兜) or helmet decorated with a crouching rabbit on top and with waves over the ear guards, says:

"Kawari-kabuto designs can draw from nature, religion, geography, or myths and legends. In choosing the motif of his kawari-kabuto helmet, a samurai made a statement, which in turn needed to be understood by both his allies and enemies. Here, the ear guards (fukigaeshi) are shaped as waves, which in combination with the rabbit alludes to the Noh play Chikubushima––a reference an educated samurai would have understood immediately, informing him about the educated mind of his opponent as well."

"Chikubushima is about the retainer of an emperor who travels to Lake Biwa in order to pray at a famous shrine on Chikubushima Island. When the ferry reaches the island, the courtier recites in praise of the scenic beauty the following lines: “Reflections of green trees sink down, and fishes climb their branches; the moon dives beneath the lake, and the rabbit of the moon sports upon the waves.” "

This last part is quoted from an article by Royall Tyler, "Buddhism in Noh.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, 1987.

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Illustrated:

1) in The Japanese Pillar Print: Hashira-e by Jacob Pins, Robert G. Sawers Publishing, 1982, p. 190, ill. #446.

2) in Chats on Japanese Prints by Arthur D Ficke, 1915, p. 168.

3) in a small black and white reproduction in Painting and sculpture of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York vol. 1 (ニューヨークメトロポリタン美術館, 絵画・彫刻, 1991, p. 74, #206. Sponsored by the Association of Scientific Research on Historic and Artistic Works of Japan (古文化財科學硏究会). [This is for the painting only of the print featured on this page. Click on the jpeg in the upper left to see the full image.]
pillar prints (hashira-e - 柱絵) (genre)
boshi-e (母子絵) (genre)
beautiful women (bijin-ga - 美人画) (genre)
Jūnishi (十二支 - 12 signs of the Zodiac) (genre)