Minneapolis Institute of Art

Toad and Mouse

Getsuju 月壽

Date

late 18th–early 19th century

Medium

Hanging scroll, ink on paper

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Text and image coexist in this painting of a massive frog, accompanied by a small white mouse. The text surrounding the two creatures tells of a man who encounters a man wearing a monk’s robe and another in rags. The man in a monk’s robe claims that he is an old mouse and launches into a harangue about his hatred toward cats. The other man replies that he is a toad who lives underneath the main hall and has no worldly desires. The toad scolds the mouse for having foolish thoughts and urges him to purify his mind for his own good. Though little is known about Getsuju, the painter and calligrapher of this work, he wrote that he painted this “with a drunken brush, ” suggesting that he had created this work at a drinking party. Japan, Asia

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