White elephant, A white elephant, with a blanket lying on three pillows. This is a reference to the idea that stroking a statue of an ox lying on a pillow brings luck. With two poems, one about an ox that turns into an elephant, and one about a mouse and the trunk of an elephant. Made following the end of the year of the Rat (mouse) and the beginning of the new year of the Ox, trunked animals: elephant, Kubota Shunman (mentioned on object), Japan, 1805, paper, colour woodcut, h 127 mm ⊙ w 174 mm.