Arms outstretched, a little girl floats into the sky, where she joins a small bird and an amorphous black cloud. Back on the ground, a snake coils itself around a tree stump while a cow peers out from behind a nearby plant. Cows were a favorite subject for Kuniyoshi; they appear in more than 60 of his works. Sometimes he claimed that cows referenced the fact that he was born in the Year of the Ox in the Japanese zodiac calendar. Other times he explained that he took an interest in the creatures during summers spent in Ogunquit, Maine, where he first encountered their ungainly proportions and placid demeanor. Harboring both Japanese and American associations, cows thus may have functioned as a sly reference to his hybrid identity as a Japanese American.

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023)