The Extraordinary Phenomenon of the Popular Otsu Picture (Tokini otsue kidai no maremono)

The Extraordinary Phenomenon of the Popular Otsu Picture (Tokini otsue kidai no maremono), an Edo ukiyo-e print designed by Utagawa Kuniyoshi in 1848, is a witty, self-reflective work that plays with the long folk tradition of otsu-e, the rough, satirical paintings sold to travelers near the city of Otsu on the Tokaido road. In Kuniyoshi's image, the standard repertory of otsu-e characters, the thunder god fishing with a hook, the long-necked demon, the wisteria maiden, the spear-bearer, and other recurring types, appears to step out of the painting and into autonomous life, a conceit that turns the print itself into a comic commentary on Edo image culture. As an Utagawa-school master best known for warrior prints, Kuniyoshi here demonstrates the comic, almost surrealist side of his imagination, deploying the same firm contour drawing and bold color blocks he used for musha-e to depict animate folk figures. The composition is densely packed but legible, organized so that each otsu-e character is recognizable to the contemporary audience as a familiar painted type now in motion. Issued in 1848, the print also reflects the climate of late Tokugawa popular culture, in which censorship pressures pushed designers toward inventive, indirectly satirical subjects. The Art Institute of Chicago holds this impression (artworks/92270) within its collection of nineteenth-century Japanese woodblock prints. The sheet stands as a vivid example of Kuniyoshi's ability to fold lower-status painted folk imagery into the prestige format of the multi-block color print.