Monkey, from the series "Twelve Signs of the Zodiac"

Monkey, from the album Seihō Jūnishi (Twelve Signs of the Zodiac), no year recorded, is the saru (monkey) plate from Takeuchi Seihō's zodiac album, here in a later impression catalogued by the Japanese Art Open Database (image at https://[ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e).org/image/jaodb/Takeuchi_Seiho-12_Signs_of_the_Zodiac-Monkey-00040728-070625-F06) and probably dating to the 1920s Unsōdō reissue. The Japanese macaque (Nihon-zaru) has been a favored Kyoto-school subject since the eighteenth century — Maruyama Ōkyo's monkey studies are foundational to the tradition — and Seihō's contribution to the lineage is unmistakably in that vein, treating the animal with naturalistic close observation combined with a lyrical brush economy inherited from his teacher Kōno Bairei. The composition shows the monkey crouched in the center of the sheet, its body modelled in dilute [sumi](/glossary/sumi) wash, with reddish tones picking up the face and rear. The double-ōban format (roughly 53 by 39 cm) and Seihō's red name-seal at the corner confirm the album sequence. This impression differs from the Art Institute of Chicago's Monkey (1954.206) in format and edition state, indicating that the same composition was reissued in multiple sizes and printings between the 1900s and 1940s — a publishing pattern characteristic of the Yamada Naosaburō / Unsōdō handling of Seihō's most popular plates. The monkey year (saru-doshi) is the ninth animal in the East Asian zodiac and was traditionally associated with cleverness and adaptability. Seihō's preferred macaque pose — crouched, alert, head turned toward an unseen viewer — appears in several of his independent monkey designs in addition to the zodiac plate, and reflects the close attention he paid to macaque behavior during summer trips to the wild populations of Arashiyama and Jigokudani, a fieldwork habit that fit neatly with the Maruyama-Shijō imperative of disciplined sketching from life.