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Attributed to Suzuki Harunobu

Cat, butterfly and begonias (Kaido ni cho to neko), ca. 1767

Description

Maker

Title

Cat, butterfly and begonias (Kaido ni cho to neko)

Year

ca. 1767

Medium

Polychrome wood block print with gauffrage

Materials/Techniques

Materials

Techniques

Supports

Dimensions

Plate: 28.3 x 21.1 cm (11 1/8 x 8 5/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

White rectangular label affixed verso, bottom right with inscription in pencil:YB142/[Japanese Characters]

Place

Japan; Tokyo

Type

Credit

Gift of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Object Number

34.421

Projects & Publications

Publications

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Nature Studies

June 7 - September 1, 2002

The word for cat in Chinese (mao) is a homophone for the word for octogenarian, and the word for butterfly (die) sounds the same as that for a septuagenarian. Thus the combination of the cat and butterflies here conveys the wish that the recipient might live a long life of seventy or eighty years. It is common for the Japanese to borrow such symbolism from the Chinese visual vocabulary.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Cat, butterfly and begonias (Kaido ni cho to neko) with the accession number of 34.421. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.