Seattle Art Museum: Exhibition Information

Approximately seventy paintings and textiles, and ceramics, lacquerware, and metalwork pieces from both SAM’s permanent collections and private collections focus on the cultural significance of three beloved Japanese folkloric creatures (rabbit, cat, and horse). The exhibition is divided into four parts: animals as sacred symbols, animals as dear friends, animals as personified characters, and animals as contemporary icons.

The "sacred symbols" installation focuses primarily on the horse. In ancient times, horses were used by the elite as symbols of status and power. During the Tumulus period, haniwa, or clay horses, were buried in mausoleums for use in the afterlife. People from all classes made pilgrimages to shrines or temples to write their wishes on emas, or wooden votive tablets depicting horses (and still do today).

The rabbit figures prominently in the "dear friends" portion of the exhibit, and appear on kimonos and lacquerware with images of moons, waves, and snow, and on waterdroppers and netsuke, or ivory carvings. Caricature paintings, or otsu-e and inro, depict cats and other animals as "personified characters" in the third section of the exhibit, symbolizing strength and virility. Artists in the medieval period depicted never-before-seen tigers from prototype paintings and domestic cats.

Maki Tamura's specially commissioned project for SAAM Rabbit, Cat, and Horse explores familiar motifs, tracing them from traditional art in SAM’s permanent collection to modern day icons. Far from forgotten, these myths are alive today and can be seen in contemporary Japanese cartoons like Pokemon and Sailor Moon; they have also inspired works by many contemporary artists, including Seattle-based Maki Tamura. Tamura, a University of Washington graduate who was born in Japan and raised in Indonesia, has transformed the last gallery space of Rabbit, Cat, and Horse into a feminine bedroom with a cornucopia of vintage Hello Kitty objects, offering viewers a bird’s eye view of modern-day Hello Kitty culture in this multitude of historical contexts.

This exhibition has been organized by the Seattle Art Museum. Special funding for Maki Tamura’s installation and associated programming generously provided by the Allen Foundation for the Arts and the W.L.S. Spencer Foundation.

Rabbit, Cat, and Horse is curated by Yukiko Shirahara, John A. McCone Foundation Associate Curator of Asian Art. The installation by Maki Tamura is co-curated by Yukiko Shirahara and Lisa Corrin, Deputy Director of Art/ Jon and Mary Shirley Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Kyogen Theater Vest (kataginu) (Detail)
Japan, late Edo period (1615-1868)
Hemp cloth and paper with paint (appliqué)
30 3/4 x 27 3/8 in.
Gift of the Christensen Fund, 2001.403
Photo credit: Paul Macapia

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