「暁斎楽画 四」

The fourth print in Kyōsai's Rakuga series of humorous, satirical woodblock prints. Positioned midway through the numbered sequence, this sheet likely continues themes developed in the preceding installments while introducing new subjects drawn from Kyōsai's inexhaustible reservoir of supernatural, comical, and socially observational imagery. The Rakuga series as a whole exemplifies the way Meiji-era artists navigated between traditional subject matter and new social realities, using humor as both shield and commentary. Kyōsai's visual humor operates through precise exaggeration — stretched postures, amplified expressions, and incongruous juxtapositions — rather than through explicit caricature, giving the prints a quality of comic grotesquerie rooted in classical painting traditions.