Koganegumo (Argiope amoena)

This articulated sculpture of a spider appears to be very unique. In Chinese characters, “spider” is usually written 蜘蛛 , but there is one type of red spider that is written 喜子, which literally means “little joy,” hence the spider has joyful connotations. Because the first character of “spider” is a homophone in Chinese of zhi and in Japanese “chi,” “to know” 知, when a spider appears it is interpreted as a harbinger of fortuitous events.