Literature: Kuo Hong-Sheng and Chang Yuan-Feng, chief eds. et al., Meiji no bi / Splendid Beauty: Illustrious Crafts of the Meiji Period (Taipei: National Taiwan Normal University Research Center for Conservation of Cultural Relics, 2013), p. 353.

Exhibited: Preparatory Office of the National Headquarters of Taiwan Traditional Arts, “Japan Arts of Meiji Period; Asia-Pacific Traditional Arts Festival Special Exhibition.” 2011.7.8-2012.1.8. cat. p. 112. 
“Meiji Kogei: Amazing Japanese Art,” shown at the following venues: Tokyo University of the Arts Museum, 2016.9.7-10.30. Hosomi Museum, Kyoto, 2016.11.12-12.25. Kawagoe City Art Museum, 2017.4.22-6.11. cat. no. 18.

Note: This articulated sculpture of a spider appears to be unique.
In Chinese characters, “spider” is usually written ?? , but there is one type of red spider that is written ??, which literally means “little joy,” hence the spider has joyful connotations. Because the first character of “spider” is a homophone in Chinese of zhi and in Japanese “chi,” “to know” ?, when a spider appears it is interpreted as a harbinger of fortuitous events.