| Description |
"Dating from the Meiji period, 19th century, is this creative and unusual rare Japanese boxwood okimono of a monkey and a bullfrog engaged in the game of kubihiki (tug of war). The monkey has an astonished expression while the bullfrog looks determined and confident that he will be victorious. The monkey is attired in an artisan’s jacket which is carved with stylized paulownia blossoms. The bullfrog’s knobby skin is finely detailed. The monkey’s eyes are double inlaid with dark and light horn, while the bullfrog’s eyes are inlaid with dark horn. The figures are mounted on the original carved wood base of slightly darker coloration. Though unsigned, it is the unmistakable carving of Masanao of Ise, Yamada. Overall length is 13 inches, overall height is 10.5 inches. Suggested year of carving is Year of the Monkey, 1886. Both figures are standing in stressed positions, and the tension on the hachimaki (farmer’s cloth headband) held between them can easily be sensed by the viewer.
The game of tug of war (kubihiki) is a game of strength played during the time of the full moon. The power of the moon in Japan extended into everyday life precisely because of its invisibility. The gravitational pull of the moon cannot be seen, but for this very reason, a special symbolic quality is attributed to the moon. Across japan, a ritual survives that demonstrates the importance that this figurative power held in earlier times. It involves a contest of tug of war on a night of the full moon, in a test of strength to determine who will have good or bad fortune in the coming year, in a perfect symbol of the invisible gravitation al pull of the moon. Unlike western tug of war which has opposing teams, the Japanese game of kubihiki is played with two opponents.
The bullfrog is Kaeru in Japanese. He is a symbol of returning luck. The monkey (Saru) is the ninth animal of the twelve-year zodiac cycle. In Japanese myth and legend, the monkey and bullfrog are at odds with one another.
There is a well known Japanese fairy tale titled the Rice Cake Race. A monkey and a bullfrog met in the mountains. With the approach of New Years, the cheerful sounds of mallets pounding rice-cakes could be heard here and there in the village. “Say, old Bullfrog, isn’t there some way we could manage to get a mortar of that rice-cake to eat?” suggested the monkey. The two of them made up their plan there in the mountain and then they took their way carefully down into the village.
First, the monkey went to the gate at the back yard of the village mayor’s house and hid. A little later, the bullfrog came up and stole into the garden. Suddenly he flopped into the spring pond with a big splash. The young people, pounding rice in the yard, heard the noise and shouted, “How awful! Our Little Master must have fallen into the pond.” Everyone deserted the mortar and rice-cake and rushed to the edge of the water. With the stage thus cleared, the monkey grabbed the mortar with the rice-cake in it in his arms and carried it easily back up to the top of the mountain. The bullfrog made his way up slowly after him. “Now, Bullfrog, old chap, rather than for the two of us to divid the rice-cake to eat, wouldn’t it be better to roll it down from here, mortar and all?” proposed the monkey. “We could run after it, and the one who reaches it first could eat the whole piece. How about it?” The bullfrog knew his feet were slow and that he would probably lose out, but he agreed. With a shout of one, two, three, the mortar of rice-cake was sent rolling down to the bottom of the slope. The swift-footed monkey went flying right after it. The heavy-footed bullfrog went shuffling down one step at a time. As luck would have it, however, the rice-cake pitched out of the mortar unnoticed by the monkey, and was left dangling on a clump of bush clover on the way. “This is a good stroke,” said the bullfrog, and he promptly squatted down beside the rice-cake and began slowly chewing on it all alone. Finding he had only chased an empty mortar, the monkey scrambled back up dejectedly. Looking on with his mouth watering, he said, “Bullfrog, old boy, how about starting to eat it from this corner?” “Why, this is my rice-cake,” answered the frog, “I can eat it from wherever I like.”" - Bernie McManus, Appraiser, Woodbury House, Connecticut, 7/22/2010
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| Comparanda |
Bonhams & Butterfields, London, UK. The Ed Hardy San Francisco Collection, May 5, 2009, lot #1102. A Japanese okimono of a toad, Meiji Period. Whimsically carved squatting and ready to leap, its head facing forward with bulging eyes above a robust body with ‘warty’ skin, signed Masanao. Length 7 inches. |
