from the series One Hundred Pictures by Kyôsai (Kyôsai hyakuzu)

As one of the later sheets in the first half of Kyōsai hyakuzu, this print likely demonstrates the cumulative ambition of a series designed to showcase the full range of Kyōsai's pictorial vocabulary in a single coherent publication. The subject may be a rat — an animal with strong symbolic associations in the twelve-year zodiac cycle and in the iconography of Daikoku, the deity of wealth — or one of the other small mammals or insects that Kyōsai depicted with the attentiveness of a naturalist. Alternatively, this sheet may present a more complex, multi-figure composition: a gathering of supernatural beings, a parody of a classical painting subject, or a scene of everyday life elevated by Kyōsai's compositional intelligence. Throughout the series, each print is unified by consistent printing quality on ōban [washi](/glossary/washi), the use of a limited but carefully chosen palette, and the distinctive boldness of Kyōsai's line as translated by skilled carvers who understood the demands of his gestural, brush-centered approach.