The tongue-cut sparrow (Shitakiri suzume)

Utagawa Yoshimori depicts the tale of a man who befriends a sparrow. His wife is cruel to the bird, cutting out its tongue when it eats her rice paste. The injured sparrow flees but is found and cared for by the man. The bird’s grateful family offer the man a gift, either a small, light basket or a large, heavy one. The man chooses the smaller basket and finds it full of silks and treasure. When he returns, his wife derides him for choosing the smaller gift and demands the heavy basket. She can be seen on the ground beside the open basket as monstrous yōkai escape from it – punishment for her nastiness and greed.