Pictures of the Presentation of the Grand Potato
About This Series
Pictures of the Presentation of the Grand Potato belongs to the satirical and politically pointed strand of Kobayashi Kiyochika's mature production, in which the artist who had pioneered the atmospheric kosen-ga of the late 1870s turned his draftsmanship to the caricature and topical commentary of the Meiji press. Kiyochika had collaborated since the early 1880s with the journalist Honda Kinkichiro on the comic magazine Marumaru chinbun and produced his own pamphlet-format prints under the heading of Kiyochika Punch, taking his cue from the British-style cartoon press that had reached Japan through the Yokohama foreign settlement. The 'Grand Potato' (daiimo) of the title functions as the kind of low-comic mitate device that Kiyochika and his collaborators favored for political subjects, allowing a contemporary government figure or policy to be ridiculed through the substitution of a humble root vegetable presented in the protocol of formal court tribute. The print accordingly operates simultaneously as caricature, as parody of ceremonial procedure, and as commentary on the political culture of the early Meiji decades, in which the new oligarchy's behavior was held up against the older codes of Edo officialdom. Stylistically the design retains the firm contour and selective color that distinguish Kiyochika's hand from the more conventional Meiji caricature mode, and it should be read alongside his other satirical sheets of the 1880s and early 1890s rather than as a discrete published series. Impressions are uncommon in Western collections, and the print is best understood through the holdings of Kiyochika satirical material at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the British Museum and the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which together preserve the most substantial record of his work in this register.
Prints in This Series (1)
Frequently Asked Questions
Pictures of the Presentation of the Grand Potato belongs to the satirical and politically pointed strand of Kobayashi Kiyochika's mature production, in which the artist who had pioneered the atmospheric kosen-ga of the late 1870s turned his draftsmanship to the caricature and topical commentary of the Meiji press. Kiyochika had collaborated since the early 1880s with the journalist Honda Kinkichiro on the comic magazine Marumaru chinbun and produced his own pamphlet-format prints under the heading of Kiyochika Punch, taking his cue from the British-style cartoon press that had reached Japan through the Yokohama foreign settlement. The 'Grand Potato' (daiimo) of the title functions as the kind of low-comic mitate device that Kiyochika and his collaborators favored for political subjects, allowing a contemporary government figure or policy to be ridiculed through the substitution of a humble root vegetable presented in the protocol of formal court tribute. The print accordingly operates simultaneously as caricature, as parody of ceremonial procedure, and as commentary on the political culture of the early Meiji decades, in which the new oligarchy's behavior was held up against the older codes of Edo officialdom. Stylistically the design retains the firm contour and selective color that distinguish Kiyochika's hand from the more conventional Meiji caricature mode, and it should be read alongside his other satirical sheets of the 1880s and early 1890s rather than as a discrete published series. Impressions are uncommon in Western collections, and the print is best understood through the holdings of Kiyochika satirical material at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the British Museum and the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which together preserve the most substantial record of his work in this register.
The Pictures of the Presentation of the Grand Potato series contains 1 prints, created by Kobayashi Kiyochika.
The Pictures of the Presentation of the Grand Potato series was created by Kobayashi Kiyochika (小林清親).
We currently have 1 of 1 known prints from the Pictures of the Presentation of the Grand Potato series indexed in our collection. Browse them all on this page.
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