Spiderman Koto — (Yoro Yousen) | "His face radiates such friendliness that all people cannot help loving him…"

Spiderman Koto — (Yoro Yousen)

Ukiyo-e woodblock print. [Np, ca. 1870]

Placard printed on two joined sheets (362 x 480 mm). Ukiyo-e woodblock print, printed in colors, text in Japanese; minor primarily marginal soiling. Mounted, framed, and glazed with Plexiglas; not examined out of frame. 

The Misemono Showman

Spiderman Koto's performance "featured singing, dancing, and parlor tricks (perhaps a combination of juggling and sleight of hand)… It is clear that Spiderman Koto…was hydrocephalic, a condition that results from an accumulation of fluid in the cranium. It is life-shortening, and it usually diminishes the mental faculties, including memory. Spiderman's accomplishments are all the more remarkable as this playbill, printed in the tenth year of the Meiji period (1877), gives his age as fifty-two" (Exemplars 158).

REFERENCE:

Exemplars, pp. 158-159