1837
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
The Giant Octopus and Others is a 1837 paint by Utagawa (Gountei) Sadahide, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
You see a sheet of paper crowded with monsters—an octopus with bulging eyes, a grinning skeleton, a dragon coiled like rope. Each creature is drawn twice, once from the front and once from the back. These weren’t just pictures; they were toys. People cut them out, glued the two sides together, and played with them like little puppets. That’s why so few survive—most were handled to pieces. The humor is sly, too. The octopus looks more goofy than scary, like a cartoon villain. In Japanese, the word for "monster" (*bakemono*) also means "something that changes," which fits these playful, two-faced figures. If you like this, look up *sfumato*—a soft, smoky shading technique that makes monsters feel even more alive.
A finished print design by Utagawa Sadahide from 1837, this work features multiple monster figures shown from two sides with identical but reversed outlines, including a pair of octopus images in the top right. The figures were intended to be cut out, mounted back-to-back, and manipulated as toys, making surviving examples rare. The playful treatment of bakemono, or shape-shifting creatures, aligns with the format’s emphasis on transformation.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Utagawa Sadahide , also known as Gountei Sadahide, was a Japanese artist best known for his prints in the ukiyo-e style as a member of the Utagawa school.
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