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Eight Shadow Figures
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One of Hiroshige’s prints from the New Edition of Shadow Making series which were probably considered omocha-e (toy pictures) intended for children. The eight patterns presented here (clockwise from upper right) are a turtle on a rock, a man wearing a Chinese-style hat, a rabbit, a shachihoko (a legendary creature with the head of dragon and the body of a dolphin), an owl, a fox, a snail, and a crow. Three include written instructions on how to make the shadows move: “open your fingers within your sleeve to move the owl’s wings,” “draw up your knee for the fox’s back,” “move the chopsticks up and down [snail].” (Source: The Minneapolis Institute of Art)