Weasel

"Weasel" — catalogued as c. 1920s — is an early Munakata work, predating his breakthrough into Buddhist subjects and his mature woodblock style. The weasel (itachi), a quick, sinuous creature with an ambiguous reputation in Japanese folklore (both a messenger of the gods and an omen of ill luck), appears here as a subject in what may be one of Munakata's earliest surviving prints. The choice of this animal — small, energetic, somewhat disreputable — hints at the outsider directness that would characterize his mature work.