This was my entry to the art competition, hosted by the Asian Club of Elmhurst University. The theme for 2023 was "Mythical Creatures & Folklore", and I decided to choose the folkstory Kachi-Kachi Yama.
Kachi-Kachi Yama, or "The Farmer and the Badger," is a Japanese folk tale. The iconic scene from the story is depicted at the bottom of my piece: the vengeful Rabbit setting fire to the mischievous Badger's gathered pile of grass. It’s seemingly a small and random act at first glance, which raises the question of why this act was done. Moving upwards, a whole story begins to unfold. Depending on the interpretation, the Badger tricked the farmer's wife into letting him go from the ropes, killed her, and turned her into soup - represented in my piece by the bowl and the ghostly, bloody hand. Only after tricking the farmer and feeding him the soup while posing as his wife was the truth exposed. After learning what had happened from the distraught old man, Rabbit vowed to exact revenge for him and made every effort to make Badger's life as miserable as possible, which is why he lit the grass. He eventually challenged Badger to a boat race, with Rabbit taking the wooden boat and Badger taking the clay boat. As Badger's boat sank, Rabbit beat him with an oar until he drowned, as depicted near the top. Rabbit then returned to the elderly man and told him that the deed had been completed and justice had been served. All of this is my interpretation of how a single action could spiral into a series of impacts, and how vengeance can be mistaken for justice.
