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Utagawa Hirokage (active 1855–1865)
Humor has always had a place in Ukiyoe. It can be subtle, like a peek at a brothel customer’s pipe in an Eisen. Not-so-subtle, like a human head made out of naked bodies drawn by Kuniyoshi. Or really really not subtle at all, like the size of certain body parts in shunga that are, how shall we say, somewhat exaggerated.
But for a real feast of Edo-era laughs, nothing beats Utagawa Hirokage’s Comical Views of Famous Scenes of Edo from 1859. The second most well-known student of Hiroshige, the other being Shigenobu, or Hiroshige II, the details of Hirokage’s life are scarce, but this series is something else. It is both a hommage to, and a satire of, Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo.
The backgrounds evoke the master, and we recongize many famous places. But in the foreground, all manner of mayhem unfolds. Workers tumble off the top of scaffolds. Lords emit foul bodily odors. Nasty badgers put villagers into a trance and march them through a field. It’s all pretty crazy.
Alas, not all the humor holds up well today, especially in those prints that suggest the subjects suffered serious injuries. But many of the designs have stood the test of time.