Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga / Scrolls of Frolicking Animals
About the work
Imported from the workbook's Full reassessment sheet, revised 7 October 2026 (record ID 81). The assessment below is the workbook's comparative judgment under its stated criteria; source links and limits are retained.
Workbook assessment: Insufficient evidence
Date or witness: 12th–13th centuries CE; first two scrolls 12th century
Region: Japan, Kōsan-ji, Kyoto
Workbook date-sort bounds: 1100 CE to 1299 CE; these bounds are not automatically invention or disappearance dates.
Description
A four-scroll repertoire in which rabbits, frogs and monkeys wrestle, bathe, attend ceremonies and imitate human society; later scrolls include human caricatures.
Evidence of adoption or transmission
One four-scroll set preserves an extended animal/human repertoire, with detached fragments.
What remains uncertain
No medieval independent copying or ordinary audience adoption is demonstrated. Modern fame and modern merchandise cannot be projected back into the twelfth–thirteenth centuries.
Workbook revision note: Reassessed using grassroots criteria