"The Heavy Basket" - Series: New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1892)

Dimensions: 14 3/8" x 9 7/8" (36.5 by 25 cm)

Color woodblock print

About: "The Heavy Basket" is a woodblock print and part of the series "New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts" in which Tsukioka Yoshitoshi set out to depict a variety of ghosts, monsters, and spirits from countryside folktales and legend. This series proved to be a great departure from the "Bloody Prints" series that Tsukioka was primarily known for during Edo Japan , with greatly reduced presence of blood and gore. This print specifically focuses on the traditionally folktale "Tongue-Cut Sparrow" and the story of a kind old man, his greedy and harsh wife, and the old man's pet sparrow named Suzume, whom the man cherishes deeply. In it, the old man's sparrow eats the wife's rice paste by accident, angering the wife and cutting the sparrow's tongue off before driving it away. The old man later finds the sparrow and the sparrow offers a gift of either a small light box, or a large heavy one. The old man chose the light box and the old couple was surprised to find gold coins and treasure. Angry that the man did not choose the large box, the wife storms to the sparrow's home demanding the gift. She opens it on her way home and is shocked to be greeted by monsters. As Tsukioka pictured it, within the box was a kappa grinning from ear to ear, a demon with an elongated neck, a bulging eye on its foreheard, and snake-like tongue, another resembling a snail with huge eye stalks, and a frog-like humanoid. Tsukioka also depicts the wife as very frail and "ugly" facial features, emphasizing the underlying message of greed and kindness in the folktale as the wife is just as "monster-like" in her actions against the small sparrow, and giving her a place fitting of monsters.

Jesse C.

https://www.scholten-japanese-art.com/yoshitoshi_109.php