Since ancient times, horses have been considered vehicles of the gods and were presented to shrines accordingly. Horses are typically associated with Shinto shrines, either in the form of ema (literally, “painted horse”), wood votive plaques with a painting of a horse, or full-scale wood models of horses. People donated sculpted or painted horses in the place of live ones, and each major shrine had its sacred stable. But such wood models tend to represent the horse with head held erect in the more classic, familiar pose.
This figure is markedly different. The head is lowered, as though stretching down for food or water; the body is rather short and squat, and it is small. Pegs on the bottoms of the hooves were inserted into a stand to elevate and secure the figure. If not a shrine votive object, it was possibly part of a larger novelty display or tableau. Such public displays, known as misemono, were popular street entertainment in the late nineteenth century, often on the grounds of a temple. For a full discussion, see Kinoshita Naoyuki, “Kisaburo, Kuniyoshi and the ‘Living Doll’,” Impressions, the annual journal of the Japanese Art Society of America, 31 (2010), 101–13 (www.japaneseartsoc.org).