Detached Segment of Frolicking Animals

This is a segment from the scrolls of [Frolicking Animals] (National Treasure), which are preserved at Kosan-ji temple in Kyoto. The segment was later mounted onto a hanging scroll. The National Treasure Frolicking Animals, known in Japanese as Choju Giga, is a set of four handscrolls owned by Kosan-ji temple in Kyoto. This segment was detached for some reason and remounted as a hanging scroll. The popularity of Frolicking Animals, particularly with children, lies in the way it uses light, unerring lines to vividly portray the movements of animals in monochrome sumi ink. This section features anthropomorphized versions of two frogs, two monkeys and a fox. They wear bamboo hats, courtly headgear and tall wooden clogs and they reverently hold wisteria flowers, so they seem to be partaking in a procession.

The work does not come with an explanatory text, though, so we cannot be sure what scenes are being portrayed. This mystery makes it all the more enjoyable to view the pictures and imagine what stories are unfurling. The first volume of Frolicking Animals features a famous scene of a rabbit and frog sumo wrestling. A Japanese bush clover lies to the right of the wrestlers. Petals from this clover seem to be fluttering beneath the large lotus leaf held by the frog on the left of this picture, which suggests this segment was originally part of Volume One.

— Museum description: Tokyo National Museum (CC BY 4.0), via ColBase / Japan Search.