Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Okabe: the story of the cat stonefront

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Okabe: The story of the cat stone

  • Description

    A cat-shaped stone located next to a small temple is a famous landmark of the village of Okabe, a post-station on the Tōkaidō Road. It was believed that that a cat witch, disguised as a friendly old woman, had once haunted the temple grounds, luring young girls into her house to kill and devour them. Eventually the witch's evil transformed her into the ‘cat stone’ still to be seen there. The Okabe story was adapted as a play for the kabuki theatre.

  • Details

    show all
    Series
    Fifty-three Parallels for the Tōkaidō Road
    Associated place
    Asia › Japan › Honshū › Kantō › Tōkyō prefecture › Tōkyō (place of creation)
    Asia › Japan › Honshū › Kantō › Tōkyō prefecture › Tōkyō (place of publication)
    Asia › Japan (Okabe) (subject)
    Date
    1845
    Edo Period (1600 - 1868)
    Artist/maker
    Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797 - 1861) (designer)
    Associated people
    Ibaya Kyūbei (c. 1820 - 1860) (publisher)
    Material and technique
    woodblock
    Dimensions
    mount 55.6 x 40.2 cm (height x width)
    print 37.2 x 25.2 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    processed material › paper
    Technique index
    printed › relief print › woodcut › colour woodcut
    Object type index
    visual representation › print
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Presented by Christ Church College, University of Oxford, 1983.
    Accession no.
    EA1983.89

Past Exhibition

see (1)

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

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