Katsushika Hokusai《Rat and Daikon Radish》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 24.1 × 34.0 cm

Katsushika Hokusai

Rat and Daikon Radish

鼠と大根図

Medium: Ink and colors on Japanese paper
Dimensions: 24.1 × 34.0 cm

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Provenance

One leaf from an album of twelve paintings. The album's title slip records that in the Tenpo famine of 1836, when many lay fallen in the roads, Hokusai — then seventy-seven — conceived this album and by it barely kept himself fed.

About This Work

The tale of Okuninushi and the rat

Thought to depict the daikoku rat, whose name comes from the old tale of the deity Okuninushi and the rat. Many painters treated the subject of radish and rat; Hokusai too left several album paintings on the theme, handling an auspicious pairing with a light brush.

More by Katsushika Hokusai

Katsushika Hokusai《Gathering Shellfish at Low Tide》32.5 × 47.9 cm — Gathering Shellfish at Low Tide
潮干狩り図

Katsushika Hokusai《Li Kui, the Black Whirlwind》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 24.1 × 34.0 cm — Li Kui, the Black Whirlwind
黒遷風李起図

Katsushika Hokusai《Bellflowers》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 24.1 × 34.0 cm — Bellflowers
桔梗図

Katsushika Hokusai《Ghost》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 24.1 × 34.0 cm — Ghost
幽霊図

Katsushika Hokusai《Hotei》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 24.1 × 34.0 cm — Hotei
布袋図

Katsushika Hokusai《Puppy and Roof Tile》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 24.1 × 34.0 cm — Puppy and Roof Tile
犬と瓦図

Katsushika Hokusai《Confucius》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 34.0 × 24.1 cm — Confucius
孔子図

Katsushika Hokusai《Tea-Whisk Peddler》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 24.1 × 34.0 cm — Tea-Whisk Peddler
茶筅売図

Tea-Whisk Peddler All works by Katsushika Hokusai Swimming Duck

Related reading

Article
26 September 2026
Buying a Hokusai painted by his own hand
Hokusai is known for prints. He also painted directly with the brush — one sheet, one hand, no block between. The gallery currently holds twelve album leaves, five hanging-scroll works in six scrolls, three fan paintings — twenty paintings in all, one of them sold — and three Thirty-six Views reprinted and mounted as scrolls.
Supervised by Yoshihisa Endo, Representative Director, Japan Art Academy

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