Drypoint etching, 100×150, May 2022
Series: Mythical Chinese monsters
The Taotie (Tōtetsu in Japanese) is a mythical Chinese monster. Its body is a bull’s, with curved horns, a tiger’s fangs, and a human’s face. The meanings of the Chinese characters in its name are ‘covet food’ (Tao) and ‘covet property’ (Tie). The belief that it ‘eats evil things’ came out of the impression that the monster eats anything, and then it started to have the meaning of a talisman in later years.
