「狂斎百狂」 「だふけ百万編」

From the 'Kyōsai Hyakkyō' (Kyōsai's Hundred Eccentricities), one of Kyosai's celebrated satirical print series, this design is titled 'Dafuke Hyakumanben' (だふけ百万編) — a parody of the Buddhist hyakumanben nembutsu practice, in which a large communal rosary is rotated through the hands of assembled devotees as they recite the nenbutsu one million times. The word 'dafuke' suggests slovenly sprawl or lazy indolence, skewing pious ritual toward comic torpor. Kyosai, arrested in 1870 for a political caricature and undeterred in his satirical output, here directs his wit at devotional excess, compressing religious behavior into bodily comedy. Figures would be rendered with Kyosai's characteristic economy of line and exaggerated physiognomy drawn from his caricature work. The Hyakkyō series title puns on his art-name Kyōsai through the near-homophonous 'kyō' (狂, madness), framing the prints as a portfolio of sanctioned artistic eccentricity commenting on social and religious life.