Twelve Kacho

Object Details

• Artist

  Ogata Gekko 尾形月耕 (1859-1920)

• Label

  Gekko postulates a delightful encounter between a trained monkey and a painted image of a horse. The monkey, a performer in a New Year's entertainment usually offered in shrines, confronts a painted horse on a votive plaque. Bearing a staff affixed with paper streamers, Gekko's monkey parodies a Shinto ritual gesture for purifying space. Paintings of heightened verisimilitude were sometimes thought to have a magical power that could transform the image into reality, and legends exist about such horses galloping off the wooden plaques.

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  The Worlds of Dreams: Modern Japanese Engravings from the Collection of Robert O. Muller (October 26, 2006 to January 7, 2007)

  Dream Worlds: Modern Japanese Prints and Paintings from the Robert O. Muller Collection (November 06, 2004 to January 7, 2007)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Robert O. Muller Collection

• Type

  Print

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1890s

• Name

  Ogata, Gekko

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Bird and flower, Art, Animals, Robert O. Muller collection, Japanese Art, Horses, Monkeys, Meiji era (1868 - 1912)

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Prints