所蔵：大阪市立美術館

大坂の画家・上田公長（一七八八～一八五〇）による作。猿に硬い柿を投げられて死んだ母蟹の復讐のため、子の蟹が臼や鋏（はさみ）、針、栗を従者として仇討ちを遂げるというお伽話を主題とする。山中で羽織のようなものを着て腰に刀らしきものを提げる蟹が、栗にきび団子を与え従者としている場面が描かれる。ひざまずいて団子を受け取る栗のきりりとした眼差し、隣で針を杖代わりにして立つ鋏のへの字口、坂の下から遅れて姿を現す臼の下がり目など、それぞれの表情がユーモラスで面白い。
この猿蟹合戦を描いた作品は複数伝わり、なかでもかつて大坂の私塾であった懐徳堂が所蔵した「解師伐袁図（かいしばつえんず）」（大阪大学附属図書館・懐徳堂文庫蔵）に賦された中井履軒の賛はよく知られており、本作もこの履軒の賛を、同じく大坂の儒学者である篠崎小竹が写したものである。中国古代の歴史注釈書の形式、文体にならって書いたものとされ、猿蟹合戦の昔噺をことさら鯱張って記すことで諧謔味を狙ったものであろう。懐徳堂周辺の人々の知的な遊びのさまが感じられる。

Collection: Osaka City Museum of Fine Art

This painting was created by the Osaka artist Kocho Ueda (1788–1850). Its theme is a fairy tale about a crab who seeks revenge for its mother, who was killed when a monkey threw a hard persimmon at her. Crab enlists the services of Mortar, Scissors, Needle, and Chestnut. The scene depicted in the painting shows Crab in the mountains wearing something like a haori coat and carrying what appears to be a sword on its waist, giving Chestnut, his attendant, millet dumplings. Each character’s facial expression is humorous, from the tense gaze of Chestnut as he kneels to receive the dumplings, to the frown of Scissors standing close by and using Needle as a walking stick, to the drooping eyes of Mortar at the bottom of the hill. Several other works depict the battle of Monkey and Crab. One of the most well known is the legend by Riken Nakai on Kaishi batsuen zu (The Crab Army Attacks Monkey; Kaitokudo Bunko, Osaka University Library), once owned by Kaitokudo, a private school in Osaka. In the present work, the Osaka Confucian scholar Shochiku Shinozaki copied this legend in the inscription. The inscription’s style is that of ancient Chinese historical commentaries. This historical use of the old tale “The Battle between Monkey and Crab” was likely intended to provide a humorous touch. The inscription gives a sense of the intellectual amusements of the people associated with Kaitokudo.