Chinese Boy and Monkey Wrestling

This print is from an untitled series showing karako (Chinese boys) in various playful poses with animals or auspicious objects. Here an energetic child with shaven head and tufts of hair on the sides playfully wrestles with a monkey. He wears a dudou 肚兜, a traditional Chinese undergarment like a bib meant to keep a baby’s belly warm and protect him from bad spirits or illness. Here the dudou is emblazoned with the character for “waterfall” (taki or ryū 瀧), which perhaps was meant to be a verbal allusion to the legend of the carp climbing a waterfall (koi no takinobori) to become a dragon—an image associated with young boys.

The prints in the series have stylized cloud bands above; see also an image of a karako holding an oversized sake cup and wearing a dudou with a rabbit motif (JP891). Since all of the known images include an animal of the East Asian zodiac, it is safe to assume it was conceived as a set of a dozen prints, though very few examples survive and impossible to verify.