New Year Greeting Card for "Rat" Year 1828

This New Year greeting card, created by Yanagawa Shigenobu, presents a study in contrasts and delicate balance, rendered through woodblock print. The composition is immediately striking. A kneeling woman, adorned in a patterned kimono, is positioned before a simple screen. To the left, a small, contained rat sits atop a geometric box, juxtaposing the organic with the structured. The artist uses the contrast of light and shadow, with a large circular void behind the woman, to draw the viewer's eye, highlighting the figure's contemplative posture. Shigenobu plays with depth and flatness simultaneously. The screen and kimono introduce a sense of three-dimensionality, yet the overall effect is one of flattened space, typical of Ukiyo-e prints. This conscious manipulation of perspective and form destabilizes conventional notions of representation. The rat, a symbol of the zodiac year, is not merely an iconographic element but a structural component in the visual game Shigenobu orchestrates, challenging our perception and expectations of space and symbol.