Rickshaw Cart

The rickshaw cart (jinrikisha) is a distinctly Meiji-period urban vehicle, introduced to Japanese cities in the 1870s, making it an anachronistic but visually apt vehicle for game-character transportation. Henry likely references Mario Kart or a similar racing game, recasting the kart as a period jinrikisha and the driver or passenger as a classical woodblock figure. The wheeled vehicle in motion is compositionally tricky in the flat space of woodblock prints; Henry likely solves this through the convention of speed lines, dust, or the stylized ground treatment used in Meiji illustration. The historical specificity of the rickshaw form anchors the print in a particular Meiji urban moment.