Nov
24th
Thu
24th
Katsushika Hokusai.
One Hundred Tales
(Hyaku monogatari). [snake]
Edo: Tsuruya Kiemon, 1830.
From an album containing
five color woodblock prints,
12 in. x 10 in. each.
Asian Division (48)
(LC-USZC4-8746)
“Obsession”
(Shûnen)In Hokusai’s time, a person’s obsessive feelings of jealousy were believed to continue beyond the grave. The vengeful spirit was thought to return to this world in the form of a snake or serpent. Hokusai’s print on the notion of “obsession” depicts a snake wrapped around a memorial tablet (ihai), customarily placed in the Buddhist altar for worship at home.
(via rusaman)