Artwork Title: Seto Taishō, Shiro Uneri

Seto Taishō, Shiro Uneri, 2013

Matthew Meyer

瀬戸大将 Seto taishō is a tiny little soldier pieced together out of chipped teacups, cracked dishes, and other miscellaneous utensils which a household no longer uses. Its face is a sake bottle and its armor is made of porcelain-ware. It runs about the kitchen on tiny spoons, wielding knives or chopsticks as swords or spears. Seto taishō is highly aggressive, and loves to chase the cooking staff around the kitchen, causing chaos. It occasionally crashes into walls or cabinets, shattering to hundreds of pieces, and then slowly puts itself back together again to resume its miniature kitchen war. The word seto refers to the Seto Inland Sea, an area famous for earthenware. Just like we say “china” in English to refer to this kind of crockery, the Japanese use “setomono” as a colloquialism for this type of object. 白溶裔 Born out of a dish towel or kitchen rag which has seen too many years of use past its prime, the shiro uneri looks like a ferocious, yet tiny cloth dragon. Shiro uneri flies through the air, chasing cleaning staff and servants, and attacking them by wrapping its slimy, mildewy body around their necks and heads, causing them to pass out from the stench. Occasionally, shiro uneri have killed servants by strangulation, though usually they seem more interested in mischief than murder.

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