A JAPANESE PADDED-SILK PANEL

A JAPANESE PADDED-SILK PANEL, OSHI-E

MEIJI PERIOD, 19TH CENTURY

Depicting a procession of forty insects including grasshoppers, praying mantises, ants and other bugs, in relief and made up of paper and folded fabric on a painted ground sprinkled with gold, the insects recreating a daimyo procession when feudal lords and attendants would travel throughout Japan, the noblemen and their retinue alternately living in their domains and in Edo (Tokyo), some carrying large lilies, daisies and other flowers as banners, others with food rations, one locust riding a large cicada as a mount, the beetle daimyo carried in a kago litter by four others, a two character signature to one corner and a red seal mark, in its original frame embellished with green fabric and floral designs in red lacquer, 55cm x 95.5cm.

See the Whyte Museum, Canada, access. no.SeP.15.01 for another example of an insects daimyo procession by Sakurai Seppo (1753-1824).