Caricature No.1 (Bread and Match)

"Caricature No. 1 (Bread and Match)" is part of Onchi's series of political and social caricatures — prints that used the exaggerating potential of the caricature mode to comment on contemporary Japanese society and politics. The pairing of bread and match may reference wartime scarcity, economic conditions, or a more oblique social commentary whose full meaning depended on contemporary knowledge now partially lost. Onchi's caricatures represent an aspect of his work frequently overshadowed by his abstract and portrait series but equally important to his engagement with the full range of printmaking's social possibilities.