Eight Shadow Figures

The three prints in Hiroshige’s New Edition of Shadow Making series were probably considered omocha-e (toy pictures) intended for children. Creating shadows through hand gestures was a common pastime for children, and such pictures would have helped them build their repertoire. 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].”