Squirrel And grapes

The pairing of a squirrel with a grape vine (risu to budō) is a long-established East Asian motif inherited from Chinese painting, where the heavy cluster of grapes and the prolific squirrel together carry connotations of fertility and abundance. As a [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e) (bird-and-flower) subject, the print marks a departure from Kotozuka's customary architectural and landscape views of Kyoto. The format invites a contained vertical composition, with the trailing vine providing a structural diagonal and the squirrel positioned among the leaves. Carving in this genre concentrates on the textural distinction between fur, leaf, and fruit, while successive colour blocks build the bloom on the grapes and the dappled shade of the foliage. Mid-twentieth-century [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) publishers often issued such nature studies alongside landscape series to broaden their catalogs, and Kotozuka—self-publishing through his own Kyoto studio—appears to have done the same on a modest scale.