Property from the collection of Drs. Edmund and Julie Lewis AFTER SHIBATA ZESHIN (1807-1891)Samurai Mouse Chasing Off Demons Edo period (1615-1868), 1864 A hanging scroll brushed in ink, light color, and gold, depicting a white mouse dressed in formal samurai attire brandishing a branch of hiiragi (Osmanthus heterophyllus) like a sword, dried soybeans by his feet, two iron-club-grasping oni demons, one red and one blue, fleeing from him, inscribed with a date corresponding to the eleventh month of 1864, signed Ōju Zeshin and sealed Zeshin 41 3/4 x14in (106.1 x 35.6cm) Although the date on the inscription of this painting corresponds to what is described above, it is also an auspicious dating in that according to the calendar based on the Chinese zodiac system, it was executed on the mouse (rat) day of the mouse month of the mouse year.