Utagawa Yoshifuji - Newly Published Comic Picture of Cats (Shinpan neko no giga) (1883) :: Japan :: Meiji era (1868-1912), 1883 (Meiji 16), July 5 Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper:: H. 145/8 x W. 913/16 in. (37.2 x 25 cm)

Susan L. and C. J. Peters

In this depiction of judgment, punishment, and salvation, Utagawa Yoshifuji casts mice as the judged and condemned and cats in the role of judges, torturers, and Datsueba (the Hag of Hell). Only one figure appears in human form, the blue savior at the lower right. Normally this individual would be Jizo (the bodhisattva Kshitigarbha), but in this satirical print he is Daitokuten, a folk god of good fortune and prosperity, who had a cult following during this period. The cats punish the mice in the same ways that humans are punished in Buddhist hell paintings, including being dunked into boiling cauldrons or blood pools.]

[Guillaume Gris]

* * * *

THREE A.M.

The god of three a.m. is the god of the dripping faucet, sirens, and barking dogs. He’s been given titular charge of circumstances that cannot be controlled. “It’s out of my hands,” he says, repeatedly. He is a minor functionary, a troll that lives under a bridge. On the far side are the pastures of night where bright stars graze in the dark matter of the cosmos. He is fond of philosophic thought. “Of course, our understanding is limited. All we can do is adhere to those laws and principles that have been proven, time and again, to work.” It seems there is some discrepancy in my papers. “A minor delay,” he assures me. Now it’s almost four.

LOUIS JENKINS