خرچنگ هنر هنری artistic art artist arts artists هنرمند نقاشی ژاپن ژاپنی japan japanese panting ukioe
HOW THE SHRIMP
GOT ITS SHAPE
A long time ago a big bird, in fact, a really big bird kept getting compliments on his size. This caused him to swell with pride and so he set out on a great journey so everyone could see how large he was. During a particularly long flight over water he tired and looked for a safe place to land. Finally he saw a pile of 'debris' sticking up out of the water. So, he set down there. With that a voice said "Who is perched on my whisker?" The speaker was an Ise shrimp. The bird identified itself and bragged about its size and its journey. To that the shrimp replied that the bird couldn't be as large as he and that gave him the idea that he should go off on a journey to show everyone how much larger he was. He set off but after a while he too grew weary and decided to rest in a convenient cave nearby. Once safely ensconced the shrimp heard a voice which said "Who is that in my nostril?" That came from a very large fish which suddenly sneezed extremely hard blowing the shrimp out of its nose sending it hurtling through the air until eventually he crashed into a high cliff. That is how the shrimp got its shape.
Moral
Look what excessive pride can do to you.
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Immediately above is an 1832 print by Hiroshige of an Ise ebi and ebi.
I want to thank our contributor E. for helping me determine
the authenticity of this particular print. Above that is a detail of most of a print by Kuniyoshi ca. 1837. It is from an untitled series of birds and beasts and may well be a reference to the story of how the shrimp got its shape.
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There are several local variations on this story. The one above comes from Ehime. But there are others. The Shizuoka, Okayama and Yamaguchi versions are called "Why the shrimp's back is bent" (Ebi no koshi ga magatta wake.) Another is entitled "Comparing sizes" (Ōkii kurabe.) We all know about that one.
beautiful fine art - basic find all