- 1 Kumon Institute of Education 2000: 5.
- 2 For a detailed discussion of the social and political unrest occurring in Edo at the time of the Bo (...)
- 3 There is no consensus on how to translate mitate. The term has been discussed by Clark 1997, Screec (...)
1The final year of the Tokugawa Shogunate marked a high point in the production of political caricature in nineteenth-century Japan. As the Boshin War (1868-1869) played out in the capital of Edo in the spring and summer of 1868, children-at-play prints (kodomo asobi-e) enjoyed immense popularity among the townspeople of Edo. The prints depict mainly boys engaged in games, which were commonly played in the backstreets or in temple grounds in Edo.1 Visions of children playing outside their homes suggest that the streets of Edo were peaceful in 1868.2 In fact, children-at-play prints were satirical refashionings (mitate)3 of political players during the Boshin War: Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837-1913), Mutsuhito, the future emperor Meiji (1852-1912), the respective samurai factions that supported their positions, as well as female political players Princess Kazu (1846-1877) and Lady Tenshōin (1836-1883). In contrast to male political players, Kazu and Tenshōin were not envisioned as children in these prints but in performative roles as teachers or beauties, and in familial roles as mother or elder sister to the adolescent Mutsuhito who was depicted as an endearing infant.
- 4 In the Meiji Period (1868-1912), the culture of Edo was re-envisioned as a national standard as the (...)
- 5 The Kanō School was a hereditary school of painting that excelled in painting timeless didactic and (...)
2Children-at-play prints envisioned political players through the lens of familial relations and juvenile ludic practices, which engendered an affective gaze and carried auspicious connotations. In doing so, these prints also situated elite political figures in the context of the culture of the townspeople of Edo. The satirical implications of this aspect of the refashioning of events of the Boshin War in children-at-play prints have not been fully explored in past research. This paper argues that these prints did not only issue satirical commentary on political events, but that their designs also affirmed the values of the culture of Edo’s townspeople.4 This becomes apparent when considering the depiction of female political players, and the selective representation of children’s games in children-at-play prints. Healthy boys and girls playing had been a popular subject of full-colour prints produced in Edo (nishiki-e) since their inception in the late 1760s. In addition, images of playing children hark back to the subject of Chinese-children-at-play (karako asobi) which was a major theme of paintings by the Kanō School.5 The visual vocabulary of this theme incorporated a wide range of games with rich seasonal and cultural connotations.
- 6 Minami 1997, 1998, 1999; Nagura 2007; Steele 2003, 2012.
3The genre of karako asobi also included images of boys pursuing scholarly accomplishments such as calligraphy practice, conveying wishes for their future career progression. Images showing boys honing their writing skills as little scholars in the making did not feature in children-at-play prints produced in Edo in 1868. Their subjects were limited to only a few games, not of all of which were derived from the genre of karako asobi. Most notably, political events such as the handover of Edo Castle to imperial forces in the fourth lunar month of 1868 were envisioned in the context of the Boys’ Day Festival (tango no sekku) held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month at the start of the rainy season in summer. In fact, developments of the Boshin War that took place between the fourth and sixth lunar months of 1868 were envisioned in the context of this festival which was not part of the genre of karako asobi. The games depicted in these prints followed two intersecting ludic patterns: boys seeking or defending treasured objects, and boys playing competitive games such as play-fights and chases. Research by scholars in Japan has explored in exhaustive detail how these games pertained to the changing power dynamics between pro-shogunal and pro-imperial forces during the Boshin War.6
- 7 Nagura 2007: 7-10; Minami 1997: 5.
- 8 Minami 1997: 9. A well-documented case of a satirical print generating contradictory rumours and in (...)
- 9 Minami 1998: 302-304, quoted in Akama 2011: 42.
4Nagura and Minami have analysed children-at-play prints as examples of the genre of fūshiga (satirical images) and fūshi nishiki-e (satirical full-colour prints published in Edo). While fūshiga generally give a sense of townspeople’s frustration with a government they perceived as oppressive,7 they rarely engendered concrete satirical meanings. Their designs were symbolic, combining a multitude of cultural and historical referents. Unpacking the potential satirical meanings of fūshiga required viewers to relate these referents to current political and economic developments. This manner of producing satirical meanings relied on the interpretive powers of viewers, and it therefore entailed some measure of ambiguity, which is evidenced in the circulation of contradictory interpretations of fūshiga among the public.8 Rather than a shortcoming, however, ambiguity was a welcome aspect of fūshiga as it provided viewers with the agency to actively participate in the production of political satire. Minami identified the broad range of cultural and historical referents that were employed in fūshiga as kabuki plays and literary works, famous print designs of the past, animals and food, famous regional specialities, historical battles, and conditions in Edo.9 Although children-at-play prints belong to the category of fūshiga commenting on conditions in Edo, their designs also reference famous regional products and the kabuki theatre.
- 10 Iwakiri 2011: 101.
- 11 Minami 1998: 304.
5Not all prints depicting child’s play in nineteenth-century Edo were invested with satirical meanings. As Iwakiri has argued, starting in the 1840’s, prints depicting children became increasingly popular as they were considered a relatively safe option following the enforcement of censorship rules during the Tenpō Reforms.10 Prints depicting child’s play only acquired more concrete satirical meanings in the 1860s. In 1868, the occurrence of key events of the Boshin War close to the time of the Boys’ Day Festival provided print producers with rich possibilities for creating engaging designs envisioning political events through the lens of popular cultural practices. Regrettably, a focus on identifying the historical referents of these prints has caused researchers to overlook how the representation of ludic patterns in these prints conveyed implicit cultural and political statements. Minami has argued that the depiction of contemporary cultural practices in children-at-play prints is a valuable source of historical information about Edo customs.11 At the same time, the ways in which these cultural practices were represented also warrant attention as they contributed to producing satirical meanings. Townsmen and townswomen in Edo valued the pursuit of style through the consumption of superfluous items and the practice of cultural accomplishments. Boys desiring possession of sumptuously decorated toys and festival decorations evoked these values.
- 12 Duus 2001: 965.
- 13 Duus 2001: 967; Gombrich & Kris 1935: 336-337. Both Duus and Gombrich gave as an example for this v (...)
- 14 Nagura 2007: 19. Nagura gives the example of town ordinances (machibure) instructing Edoites to ref (...)
6Uncovering these cultural connotations of children-at-play prints is essential to gaining a better understanding of their function as political caricature in Edo in 1868. This also requires an awareness of the limits and the possibilities of political caricature in Edo in 1868. Duus has argued that political caricature in nineteenth-century Europe could be a democratic weapon of the weak to hold the strong to account.12 Gombrich noted that Western caricature sometimes exaggerates the bodily features of political figures as visual-textual analogies of their character flaws.13 By contrast, the refashioning of political figures in children-at-play prints never issued personal satirical attacks on political leaders. It fashioned them in alternative roles as performers on the stage of Edo’s popular culture which included children’s games. Being first and foremost Edo prints (nishiki-e), the primary intended audience of children-at-play prints were the townspeople of Edo. As such, their designs sought to establish an affective rapport with Edoites by situating distant political events within the familiar realm of their cultural practices. This was particularly meaningful at a time when the positions of political players lacked stability. Leading up to the Boshin War, Edoites noticed the increasing reference shown by the shogunate towards the emperor, indicating a reversal of their power relationship.14 In a situation of flux that saw long-held political truths waning, the only constancy that townspeople could reliably fall back on were their own cultural practices. In emphasising this aspect, this paper will demonstrate that the democratising function of children-at-play prints as political caricature came from a position of affective rapport with Edo’s townspeople rather than from an adversarial stance towards the government. Children-at-play prints are an ambiguous form of political caricature, deriving their meanings from traditions of envisioning children in the genre of karako asobi, and from the practice of refashioning (mitate) in nishiki-e.
- 15 Gombrich & Kris 1935: 337.
- 16 Part of the reason for this was the invisibility of rulers to the public, termed iconography of abs (...)
- 17 For a discussion of hanjimono see Brisset, Dumora & Simon-Oikawa 2018.
7As Gombrich has argued, political caricature in early modern Europe packaged satirical meaning on the basis of a playful combination of image and text.15 Nishiki-e employed textual-visual codes to produce satirical meanings, too, but these were not derived from the personal features of political figures.16 Since political leaders were distant and even invisible to the public, family crests and other symbolic motifs were used to identify them. In addition, the practice of refashioning (mitate) situated political figures within the context of Edo’s popular culture, thereby conflating multiple historical and cultural allusions. The resulting ambiguous designs were read as puzzle pictures (hanjimono) as viewers unriddled symbolic content to identify hidden satirical meanings.17 These meanings had to be actively sought by perusing the image as a whole and by observing closely to figure out the relations among depicted figures and motifs. Nishiki-e thus lacked the instant satirical bite of political caricature in nineteenth-century Europe. Being slow burners, the textual-visual codes of nishiki-e did not expose the shortcomings of political figures in the same visceral way as political cartoons in nineteenth-century Europe. Instead, textual-visual codes helped viewers identify disguised political figures as well as the various historical and cultural referents surrounding them. The attention of viewers was thus diffused across several points of interest offered in a single print design.
8Nishiki-e required active reading and viewing strategies as viewers deduced interconnected layers of hidden meanings behind the surface appearance of text and image. Concealing satirical meanings in this complex way required viewers to be willing to engage with the design of a print in some depth. With the production of satirical meaning thus hinging on the viewer, nishiki-e employed visual and textual strategies to draw viewers in. Repositioning distant political figures in settings that were familiar to townspeople was an effective strategy for ensuring affective rapport with these people. For example, a print issued in the third month of 1868 shows the Shogun in a shamisen practice room (fig. 1). He wears a kimono adorned with a pattern created by linking the Chinese character for the number one. He was consistently identified through this pattern in children-at-play prints. By contrast, the adolescent emperor was refashioned as an infant. The pattern of his robes which consists of the Chinese character for gold, kin, alludes to popular speech in Edo. Townspeople called out unknown boys in the streets as kinbō.18 In children-at-play prints, the emperor is usually addressed by other boys as Kin-chan, literally meaning “Golden Boy”. In visual terms, kin evoked the role of the emperor as a priced possession bestowing political legitimacy on the samurai factions that owned him.
Fig. 1. Tōsei Misuji no tanoshimi (Enjoying the Trendy Shamisen), 1868. National Diet Library, Tokyo [https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1312041], accessed 28 October 2021.
- 19 Nagura 2007; Minami 1997, 1998, 1999.
- 20 Steele 2003: 64.
9The familiar practices and cultural settings envisioned in children-at-play prints allowed contemporary viewers to evaluate the conduct of political figures through the normative lens of their own culture. Minami and Nagura have discussed how the mitate techniques employed in children-at-play prints disguised contemporary political players, issuing commentary on the events of the Boshin War from the perspective of Edo’s townspeople.19 Steele has emphasised that children-at-play prints are valuable historical documents as they give rare glimpses into Edoites’ disenchantment with all sides of the political spectrum in 1868.20 While their research on the satirical meanings of children-at-play prints appears exhaustive, there is scope for creating further insights. To achieve this, it is necessary to engage critically with the concept of political caricature and with the characteristics of different printed media in nineteenth-century Japan. Although satirical children-at-play prints were only produced for a short period of time, mainly in 1868, their design features give an insight into the growing potential of printed media to shape public opinion in nineteenth-century Japan.
- 21 For a discussion of a wide range of cultural products engendering satirical meanings in early moder (...)
- 22 Minami 1997: 130.
- 23 Eubanks 2012: 68.
10Past research on this subject has not paid sufficient attention to the different ways in which specific types of printed media such as nishiki-e, illicit broadsheets (kawaraban), and satirical illustrated fiction (kibyōshi) functioned as conduits of political satire in early modern Japan.21 During the prolonged famine of the Tenmei Era (1781-1789), an illicit broadsheet crudely caricatured senior counsellor Tanuma Okitsugu (1719-1788) as a monster (bakemono).22 By contrast, nishiki-e were a more ambiguous medium for satirical meanings, partly owing to censorship regulations. Yet, even as censorship became increasingly lax in Edo in 1868, children-at-play prints continued to disguise political players as Edo boys in familial and ludic settings. This refashioning cannot be explained on grounds of censorship alone. It was also a product of the close ties between nishiki-e and the culture of Edo’s townspeople. Eubanks has shown how witty combinations of image and text in printed media were used to paint townspeople culture in a positive light.23 Although Edoites appreciated some critical self-reflexivity in kibyōshi which were suited to this purpose, nishiki-e generally fostered a more complimentary attitude towards the culture of townspeople. In this sense, nishiki-e as political caricature prioritised the affirmation of the cultural values of Edo’s townspeople over positing an adversarial stance towards the government.
11This can be seen when considering the historical development of satirical nishiki-e designs which flourished during the Tenpō Reforms. Nishiki-e designs that commented on the hardship experienced by Edoites were ambiguous as a rule, evading censorship and generating gossip and rumours among the populace. In the 1840s, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) was a leading designer of satirical nishiki-e. Differently to children-at-play prints, his satirical designs employed gloomy tropes such as images of ghosts and hell. Contemporary viewers interpreted these images as parallels to their lived experience under the Tenpō Reforms. In 1841, Kuniyoshi designed a triptych depicting demons (oni) torturing the souls of the dead at the court of Enma, the king of hell.24 Brandl argues that the tortured souls represent Edo’s townspeople while Enma was a refashioning of Mizuno Tadakuni based on the abstracted Chinese character for water (mizu) on his chest.25 Her interpretation of the image as political satire relies on probing the historical context at the time of the publication of the print when Tadakuni had imprisoned a group of progressive political figures who had tried to apply practical knowledge to relieve the famine at that time. A prominent member of the group, the physician and scholar of Western learning Takano Chōei (1804-1850) was imprisoned in Denmachō Prison in Edo, which was only a few blocks away from the print’s publisher, Tsutaya Kichizō.26 The dark atmosphere of this design probably conveyed a general sense of townspeople’s suffering under an unjust government. On the other hand, it is difficult to claim that this fussy allusion to human suffering was intended to be a direct satirical attack on the government.
- 27 Kuniyoshi (1843). Minamoto Yorimitsu Conjures up Demons at the Mansion of the Earth Spider (Minamot (...)
12Interpretations of nishiki-e as political satire often depend on relating the design to historical events occurring around the time of their publication. This approach, however, disregards the fact that some satirical nishiki-e continued to be reproduced—both in print and in manuscript—for several years after the Tenpō Reforms had passed. An outstanding example for this is Kuniyoshi’s memorable earth spider design which refashions Edo’s townspeople as ghosts and demons, and members of the shogunal government as medieval warriors in the convoluted style of a puzzle picture.27 This style depicts human figures and motifs in the surrounding space, which are usually plentiful, with equal levels of attention to detail, prompting viewers to consider each motif as potentially meaningful on its own and in the context of the overall narrative portrayed in the print. The resulting diffusion of meaning made the design intriguing for contemporary viewers. It also made it more generic as these meanings could not be pinned down exclusively to a specific historical event. This diffusive approach to producing meaning in satirical nishiki-e stood in contrast to the thinly disguised news content of illicit broadsheets. Notably, this changed in 1868 as children-at-play prints disguised political players relatively unambiguously, thus closely approaching the newsworthy character of illicit broadsheets.
- 28 For a detailed discussion of namazu-e see Wakamizu 2007, and Takada & Miyata 1995. For a discussion (...)
13There had already been a moment of close convergence between illicit broadsheets and nishiki-e in 1855 following the Ansei Edo Earthquake. Over the course of a few months following the earthquake, catfish prints (namazu-e) commented on the economic and social fallout from the earthquake.28 Although the complexity of their designs evoked nishiki-e, they were still illicitly printed broadsheets. Considering this, the unprecedented historic specificity of children-at-play prints as satirical hanjimono and as nishiki-e is probably the main reason why their content has been interpreted with an overwhelmingly historical focus. However, prioritising historical connections over tracing the cultural connotations of the designs of children-at-play prints has, to some extent, obscured the meanings of these prints as political caricature in Edo in 1868. For a short period of time, children-at-play prints disguised political figures and developments of the Boshin War relatively unambiguously, allowing readers to identify these based on symbolic motifs such as the patterns adorning their clothes. In addition, refashioning distant political figures such as emperor and shogun within the context of townspeople’s culture provided Edoites with the opportunity to draw inferences about the qualities of political figures.
- 29 For a detailed discussion see chapter 5 “Parades of Difference/Parades of Power” in Toby 2019: 142- (...)
14At the same time, subsuming outsiders to Edo such as the boy-emperor Mutsuhito into the cultural orbit of Edoites was never only a characterization of distant political figures. Children-at-play prints put their conduct on display in the guise of young boys playing games as well as the culture of Edo’s townspeople, which these games represented. Viewers of these prints evaluated both the performance of the boys and the underlying cultural practices of Edo’s townspeople. Toby has demonstrated how the mutual dynamics of spectators and performers looking and watching one another during festival performances shaped notions of identity.29 Although Toby based his argument on images depicting Korean embassy processions and their re-enactments in the context of Edo festivals, it can be said that a similar strategy was employed in children-at-play prints, especially in prints alluding to the Boys’ Day Festival. Most children-at-play prints show boys representing pro-shogunal and pro-imperial samurai factions engrossed in playing competitive games. As part of these games, the boys watch and assess their respective appearance and conduct. In doing so, they also pay attention to surrounding objects such as festival decorations. The detailed depiction of these seemingly tangential objects in children-at-play prints prompted viewers to regard them with as much attention as the boys playing, which provided them with a vital role in anchoring developments of the Boshin War within the dynamics of Edo’s popular culture.
- 30 Nagura 2007: 72.
- 31 をぢさん、はやくあすこへつれてッておくれよ。
- 32 Kitagawa Utamaro (ca 1802). Goldfish, from the series “Elegant Comparison of Little Treasures (Fūry (...)
15The prints show young boys assessing, seeking, or guarding desirable objects: the boy-emperor Mutsuhito and Edo Castle which was refashioned in many guises as a toy, graffiti on a storehouse wall (fig. 2) or as an illustration on a single-panel screen on the theatre stage (fig. 3). All prints depicting the emperor desiring priced possessions were issued in the fourth month of 1868 when Edo Castle was handed over to imperial forces. Over the course of this month, print designs show Mutsuhito developing from a small infant watching and pointing at desirable objects (fig. 1) into a young boy demanding treasured objects such as warrior dolls decorating the entrance to Edo Castle at the time of the Boys’ Day Festival (fig. 4). The dolls represent samurai factions that had shifted their allegiance towards the emperor.30 The print depicting the boy-emperor looking at the shamisen lesson room uses direct speech to convey his eagerness to access Edo: “Uncle, take me there, quick!”31 Representations of young children seeking interesting objects by touching or pointing at them were designed to engender an affective gaze in contemporary viewers of nishiki-e, helping to peddle the notion that children were adorable treasures (kodakara). These prints often combined multiple desirable objects such as a beautiful woman (bijin) beside a young boy or girl as well as auspicious and seasonal objects. For example, a summer print by Kitagawa Utamaro (1753?-1806) shows a young boy who has knocked over a goldfish basin in his eager pursuit of the fish.32
Fig. 2. Utagawa Hiroshige III, Kodomo Asobi Doro Kazen (Children-at-Play: Mudfight), 1868. Waseda University Library [https://www.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kotenseki/html/chi05/chi05_04194/index.html], accessed 28 October 2021.
Fig. 3. Utagawa Hiroshige III, Kodomo Shibai Chūshingura (Children’s Theatre: Storehouse of Loyal Retainers), 1868. National Diet Library, Tokyo [https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1310794], accessed 28 October 2021.
Fig. 4. Utagawa Yoshifuji, Kodomo Asobi Tango no Kisei (Children-at-Play: The Lively Spirit of the Boys’ Day Festival), 1868. National Diet Library, Tokyo [https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1310268], accessed 28 October 2021.
16Considering the precious connotations of children in nishiki-e, and the status of toys as tokens of the townspeople culture of Edo, the print depicting the boy emperor desiring entry into the shamisen lesson room also served as an affirmation of the attractiveness of the culture of Edoites to outsiders. Evoking the juvenile behaviour of openly desiring coveted objects was a key strategy for issuing satirical commentary on events of the Boshin War. Of particular importance for this was the custom of displaying warrior dolls and other protective items during the Boys’ Day Festival. This print design by Utamaro depicts a young boy carrying an opulently decorated toy sword and pointing eagerly at a display of festival banners (fig. 5). The inscription sums up the affective gaze with which Edoites viewed their offspring:
- 33 五月五日は端午と云此日より帷子をきる此節句は毒虫出て人の身を害するゆへ粽は蛇のかたちにして是を食し禍なき事を表し蓬・菖蒲を軒にふく事も邪気をさける呪術なりけふといへは蓬の若葉刈添て宮もわらやもあやめ (...)
The fifth day of the fifth month is called Tango. From this day, [people] start wearing summer robes. Since poisonous insects that are harmful to people’s bodies come out on this day, rice dumplings are formed in the shape of these insects and eaten. This symbolises the absence of misfortune. Adorning the eaves of houses with irises and mugwort is another magical method to ward off evil. Nowadays, young mugwort leaves are wrapped around iris blades.33
Fig. 5. Kitagawa Utamaro, Tango (Boy’s Day), 19th century. Tokyo National Museum, ColBase: Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan [https://colbase.nich.go.jp/collection_item_images/tnm/A-10569-4383?locale=ja], accessed 28 October 2021.
17The banners in the background depict the demon queller Zhong Kui (Jap.: Shōki) in his crimson manifestation as protector against disease. The text and the image of the print balance two intersecting concerns—townspeople’s desire to protect their children from harm and the child’s interest in a precious object, the festival display. Children-at-play prints evoked both concerns to comment on the Boshin War. In the prints, the imperial side which is led by the boy-emperor Mutsuhito displays the desire of young children to obtain precious objects. In the print depicting the shamisen room (fig. 1), the boy-emperor demands access to the shamisen room while the Shogun who is in the shamisen room has turned his back towards the teachers and students participating in the shamisen lesson. The print thus creates a strong contrast between the Shogun’s detachment and his apparent wish to remove himself from Edo with the emperor’s enthusiasm to access and possibly to control Edo culture.
- 34 Steele 2003: 127.
- 35 Ukita Ikkei (1795-1859) painted a scroll depicting a fox marriage, Konkai zōshi (Tale of a Strange (...)
18The gaze of pro-imperial forces who represent outsiders to Edo watching the shamisen lesson thus validates the culture of Edoites as superior and desirable. This interpretation aligns to some degree with Steele’s assertion that Edoites viewed pro-imperial forces from the southern provinces of Shikoku and Kyūshū islands as uncultivated people.34 The prints hinted at their apparent lack of cultural accomplishment by showing their envy of the culture of Edoites. The representation of female political players, Kazu and Tenshōin, in children-at-play prints also supports this interpretation. Princess Kazu was sister to Emperor Kōmei and wife to Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi (1846-1866) whom she had married in 1862. The marriage was seen as a desperate attempt to shore up the Shogunate’s waning political authority.35 When Iemochi died four years later, Kazu took the tonsure and the Buddhist name Seikan’in. Children-at-play prints ignored this and continued to envision her as Kazu, refashioning her as a female minder to the infant emperor and the temporary custodian of Edo Castle, Tayasu Kamenosuke. Having been born in 1863, Kamenosuke was younger than Mutsuhito. Nevertheless, children-at-play prints depict both as equally juvenile.
- 36 Davis 2015.
- 37 For a detailed discussion about how this print relates to the Chūshingura play see Minami 1999: 160 (...)
19Kamenosuke and Kazu surrendered the castle to imperial forces on the eleventh day of the fourth month of 1868. A print issued at this time depicts Kazu as a female beauty, a bijin, reclining demurely against a writing desk and beside a flower arrangement of irises, which were seasonal signifiers of early summer (fig. 3). The arrangement evokes the elaborate interior scenes of Yoshiwara brothels by Utamaro, thus hinting at the attractions of Edoites’ culture.36 There is also a further layer of cultural reference as the title of the print refers to the popular puppet play of the Treasury of Loyal Retainers (Chūshingura), and she thus represents the beauty Kaoyo Gozen from that play.37 Her figure is half-hidden behind a one-panel screen showing watchtowers and the gate to Edo Castle closed. Although she smiles benevolently, her graceful figure recoils from the pro-imperial forces who are brandishing guns, here refashioned as bamboo sticks, showing their muscular arms and legs. Princess Kazu’s demeanor shows Edo’s fūryū aesthetic triumphant. The contrast between the military display by boys representing outsiders and the elegance of Kazu, here refashioned as a beauty, highlights the cultural superiority of Edoites.
20Children-at-play prints thus restage events of the Boshin War using the familiar cultural vocabulary of performance and competition in Edo. Tenshōin playing the shamisen (fig. 1) and Kazu reclining demurely amidst sumptuous cultural accoutrements (fig. 3) displayed the cultural sophistication of Edoites. As Toby has shown, the affective strategy of validating the self by showing it through the gaze of the other was used in nishiki-e to create rapport with Edoites.38 Children-at-play prints envisioning the Boshin War as intersecting heterotopias of cultural performance and child’s play allowed contemporary viewers in Edo to validate their own culture and to evaluate the conduct of distant political players at the same time. This affective dimension of children-at-play prints is an important aspect of its function as political caricature in Edo in 1868.
- 39 Steele 2012: 50.
- 40 Steele 2012: 52.
- 41 Minami 1999: 202-204; Steele 2003: 54.
21Reading children-at-play prints as affective statements of Edoites’ concern for their own culture adds a further layer of meaning to their interpretation as political caricature. In contrast to the strong desire of children representing outsiders to get access to Edo culture, Shogun Yoshinobu is depicted walking away from games, turning his back on performances, or simply not joining in. Being depicted on the sidelines of games also hinted at the fact that Yoshinobu never set foot in Edo Castle during his brief tenure as shogun from 1866 through 1868. In children-at-play prints he is shown detached from politics and from Edo. When Kamenosuke is depicted teasing the imperial forces by holding up the castle gate, Yoshinobu hides in the background.39 He eventually disappears, retiring to his home domain of Mito. A print depicts him as a peasant among rice fields in the countryside of Mito Domain.40 The ambiguous characterisation of the shogun as a person devoid of desire for anything was to some degree also matched by the representation of Edo Castle as an object of dubious desirability. A print by Hiroshige III (fig. 2) depicts a mud fight between two groups of boys representing pro-shogunal and pro-imperial forces. According to Minami and Steele, the print conveys Edoites’ concern regarding the possibility of open war breaking out in Edo in the sixth month of 1868.41
- 42 Keisai Eisen (ca 1846). Eight Views of Edo: Clearing Weather at Nihonbashi Bridge (Edo Hakkei Nihon (...)
22The print has further connotations if one considers the centrality of the motif of young children seeking or defending desirable objects. Two groups of boys appear to be fighting over access to a storehouse which is clad in scaffolding and is in the process of being mended with mud. The storehouse wall features a crude graffiti showing the outlines of Edo Castle and the exclamation that Edoites (Edokko) will not lose. At first glance, this simply conveys townspeople’s disdain for the invading pro-imperial forces. A more nuanced reading of the design shows that the main object defended by the boys is, in fact, the storehouse. Representing the wealth of Edo, the prominence of the storehouse over the sketchily drawn outlines of Edo Castle conveys the hope of Edoites for a government that would ensure peace and prosperity. The small castle, by contrast, appears as an afterthought harking back to a time when it symbolized the ability of the Tokugawa Shogunate to maintain a prosperous realm. Children-at-play prints thus conveyed the dubious status of Edo Castle as a coveted possession. This was a marked departure from established conventions in nishiki-e of showing the bustling city beneath the watchful presence of Edo Castle as in a print by Keisai Eisen (1790-1848) in the late 1840s.42 The way in which Edo Castle is represented in this image suggests that it was no longer associated with the protective powers of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the eyes of Edoites.
- 43 Nagura 2011: 182, 193. Nagura gives the example of Honoré Daumier’s depiction of the Austro-Prussia (...)
- 44 For more detail on this print see Minami 1999: 166-170.
23Nagura has argued that children-at-play prints lack the moral gravitas of caricature in nineteenth-century Europe as they do not evoke the horrors of war.43 However, one needs to be cautious in evaluating children-at-play prints by the standards of political caricature in Europe. These prints did not just refashion political figures as playing children. Their toys and decorative items were also pictured with equal care. In fact, these items carried serious and nuanced connotations. To understand children-at-play prints as serious political caricature, one needs to pay attention to these decorative items. Especially decorations associated with the Boys’ Day Festival such as irises, banners, warrior dolls and helmets had special protective powers. Being positioned at the entrance to houses where young boys lived, they guarded against evil forces. A print published at the end of the fourth month (fig. 4), close to the time of the Boys’ Day Festival, makes a powerful statement of betrayal as it shows the boy-emperor and supporting samurai factions claiming warrior dolls that were supposed to guard the entrance to Edo Castle as their price on entering the castle.44
24The print shows a direct confrontation between the infant emperor and Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu in Edo Castle which never actually took place. The emperor was not in Edo at that time and Yoshinobu had been in confinement in Kan’eiji Temple in Ueno. Nevertheless, the print places him next to Lady Tenshōin, the widow of Shogun Tokugawa Iesada (1824-1858), and Kamenosuke at the entrance to Edo Castle greeting the boy-emperor who is placed amidst children brandishing a sumptuous naginata adorned with a royal dragon, swords, and a toy canon. Naginata were part of displays protecting the entrances to houses in Edo during the Boys’ Day Festival. Being in possession of an opulent naginata confirmed to contemporary viewers of the print in Edo that the pro-imperial forces were no longer culturally inferior to Edoites. They had started to master the intricate vocabulary of cultural competition in Edo, and their position had changed from enviously watching the performances of Edoites (fig. 1) to playing the games of Edoites by claiming their festival items (fig. 4).
- 45 For a further discussion of Tachibana Morikuni’s painting manuals see Marquet 2014: 332-333.
- 46 婦人の乳子を嬰と云婦人ハ胸に嬰と云物をかかす也婦人の子を懐に抱時衣の衿ひけて首に物を懸たるがごとし
25Viewed with the affective regard in which Edoites held the decorations of the Boys’ Day Festival, this design conveyed to Edoites how the pro-imperial forces were trying to claim cultural legitimacy in Edo. To fully appreciate the significance of decorative elements pertaining to the Boys’ Day Festival as sources of satirical meaning in children-at-play prints, it is necessary to consider the history of the depiction of the Boys’ Day Festival in early modern Japan. Although the Boys’ Day Festival was a prominent topic of children-at-play prints in Edo in 1868 and of nishiki-e more generally, it did not feature among the games encompassed by the broad genre of karako asobi depicting Chinese children at play. Karako asobi images show young boys with rounded heads that appear large relative to their bodies. The printed painting manual Ehon Nezashi Takara (Picture Book of the Treasures of Direct Pointing, 1745) by the Osaka-based painter Tachibana Morikuni (1679-1748) depicts Chinese children in an aristocratic garden setting playing a game of chain tag (fig. 6).45 The accompanying gloss tells of the unity between mother and infant which she carries close to her chest like a string of shells.46 Scenes depicting Chinese children playing showed them as endearing treasures that required nurturing. The affective gaze of the viewer was therefore focused on the parent’s role to protect the child.
Fig. 6. Double-page illustration from Tachibana Morikuni, Ehon Nezashi Takara (Picture Book of the Treasures of Direct Pointing), 1745, Osaka, Shōkōdō. Waseda University Library [https://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/bunko31/bunko31_e0459/], accessed 28 October 2021.
- 47 Torii Kiyonaga (ca 1791). Children Say, “This is Japan!” and Imitate the Games They See in Pictureb (...)
26The endearing portrayal of Chinese boys in karako asobi images with large heads and rounded features was also adopted by designers of nishiki-e but it was given new connotations. In the late eighteenth century, Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815) showed boys wearing Chinese robes practicing calligraphy and painting in the style of Edo.47 Kiyonaga depicted a Chinese boy choosing to paint a kabuki actor over a timeless subject like auspicious birds and flowers, suggesting that the boy found the fame of an actor more appealing than training for a scholarly career. Kiyonaga’s design demonstrates that in nishiki-e the adorable appearance of young boys was not enough to appeal to Edoites. The affective gaze which these designs engendered applied to the children and to the objects that surrounded them and that alluded to the culture of Edo’s townspeople. In this sense, nishiki-e diversified the affective connotations of karako asobi images, making the culture of Edo a key focus. The designs of satirical children-at-play prints in Edo in 1868 derived their meanings from these developments.
27An early children-at-play print which was issued in the second month of 1868 depicts children playing a game of chain tag (fig. 7). As we have seen in Morikuni’s painting manual (fig. 6), the game of chain tag was part of the genre of karako asobi. However, in popular cultural practices in Early Modern Japan, the game had acquired Buddhist connotations which it did not originally have in karako asobi. The game depicted in figure 7 is oni gokko, literally “pretending to be a demon”, in which a child assumes the role of protector (parent) while another child plays the catcher representing the demon (oni). The child representing the oni tries to grab a child from the end of the row of children lining up behind the parent. As Santō Kyōden (1761-1816) explained in the second volume of his history of Edo customs, the Kottoshū (Collection of Antiques, 1813), the game harks back to Bodhisattva Jizō protecting the souls of dead children in the children’s limbo in hell, sai no kawara, from being taken by hell demons.48 However, the children-at-play print twists the focus of this game from protecting all children from the hell demon to grabbing the ultimate price of the game, the boy-emperor Mutsuhito who is depicted at the end of the line of children.49 The children are probably on their way to a terakoya school because the boy acting in the role of parent has adorned his shoulders and hips with copybooks for writing practice (tenaraizōshi) which function as makeshift armour. The print has a censor’s seal, and the signature by the designer Utagawa Hiroshige III reads: “Playfully brushed by Hiroshige.”
Fig. 7. Utagawa Hiroshige III, Osana Asobi Ko wo Toro Ko wo Toro (Children Playing Chain Tag), 1868. National Diet Library, Tokyo [https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1310777], accessed 28 October 2021.
- 50 のぼり甲を立る事はもろこし蚩尤が城へせめよせたちすがたとなり菖蒲蓬をさすは天平十九年五月はじまる端午のあかつき蓬をとりて居間にかけのきにかされば悪風をはらぬといへり
28Before the advent of nishiki-e, children playing were not always depicted as cute. This is particularly true of the representation of children in the context of the Boys’ Day Festival, which was not included in the genre of karako asobi. The Yamato Kōsaku Eshō (Illustrated Compilation of Japanese Agriculture), an illustrated book published in Osaka in the Genroku Period (1688-1704), gives an impression of how young boys and decorations at the time of the Boys’ Day Festival were envisioned before they became a subject of nishiki-e in Edo. In this book, the festival decorations merely provide an auspicious backdrop for people preparing for the festival (fig. 8). The illustration shows townhouses, the entrances of which are adorned with banners, dolls, and warrior helmets. They were not priced objects sought by endearing little boys for their attractive appearance. The decorations are forming a physical and spiritual barrier to potentially evil outside forces. The inscription highlights the protective function of these motifs. It mentions that these banners and armour harked back to the military campaigns of the war deity Chi You (Jap.: Shiyū) in ancient China, and that the fragrant irises and mugwort adorning the interiors and the eaves of townhouses were intended to expel evil.50
Fig. 8. Double-page illustration from Ishikawa Tomonobu (images), Yamato Kōsaku Eshō (Illustrated Compilation of Japanese Agriculture), Genroku Period (1688-1704), Edo, Izutsuya Sanemon. University of Tsukuba Library, National Institute of Japanese Literature [https://kotenseki.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100261842/], accessed 28 October 2021.
29The boys that are depicted playing in front of these illustrations are physically adorned with protective items such as tokin on their heads and the attire of mountain ascetics yamabushi mountain ascetics. The following illustration depicts boys playing in a violent manner (fig. 9), throwing projectiles at each other in a game called injiuchi (literally, “throwing rocks”). The hairstyle and stature of the boys suggest that they are in their early teens. They lack the endearing rounded features of the young boys depicted in karako asobi images. In addition, they are using banners to mark their opposing factions in a confrontation that resembles a real fight rather than a make-belief game (gokko asobi). By the time nishiki-e were flourishing, this violent game no longer accorded with the cultural sensibilities of Edoites. In his history of Edo customs, Santō Kyōden quoted from the Yamato Kōsaku Eshō, reusing its illustration showing townhouses adorned with festival banners. However, he did not include the illustration pertaining to injiuchi. Kyōden’s Kottoshū shows that Edoites increasingly paid attention to the historical developments of their own customs, including the Boys’ Day Festival. Kyōden also explains the origins of the festival decorations, but he ignores the historical military connotations of some of the festival toys and decorations that were explained in the Yamato Kōsaku Eshō. The military nature of some of the games that were traditionally played during the Boys’ Day Festival clashed with the sophisticated portrayal of selected aspects of the culture of Edoites in children-at-play prints.
Fig. 9. Double-page illustration from Ishikawa Tomonobu (images), Yamato Kōsaku Eshō, Genroku Period (1688-1704). Edo, Izutsuya Sanemon. University of Tsukuba Library, National Institute of Japanese Literature [https://kotenseki.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100261842/], accessed 28 October 2021.
30In addition, the representation of cute boys desiring pretty objects during the Boys’ Day Festival became an intrinsic feature of nishiki-e in Edo. Children-at-play prints derived their meanings from this tradition and from the meanings of festival decorations as precious objects. They still held talismanic meanings, but they were also appreciated for their aesthetic features as symbols of Edo culture. This is also supported by representations in the Tōto Saijiki (Annual Record of the Eastern Capital, 1838) by Saitō Gesshin (1804-1878). The Tōto Saijiki depicts street stalls selling toy weapons and decorations in street markets close to the time of the festival in the fourth month (fig. 10). The illustration envisions the festival as a matter of acquiring and displaying precious items. In addition, the haiku poems in the Tōto Saijiki celebrate the irises and banners as famous products pertaining to the townspeople’s culture of Edo: “Rising from Fuji’s Valley amidst white clouds—the banners of Edo”.51 The focus on festival items thus portrayed the Boys’ Day Festival as a manifestation of the values of the culture of Edo’s townspeople. The historical military and talismanic associations of these items were thus combined with their contemporary meanings as objects of consumption. Festival decorations thus added another layer of stylishness to the conduct of female political players who were refashioned as musical performers or as beauties in satirical children-at-play prints in 1868.
Fig. 10. Illustration from Saitō Gesshin Tōto Saijiki (Annual Record of the Eastern Capital), 1838. National Diet Library, Tokyo [https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/8369317], accessed 28 October 2021.
31Considering the historical development of the representation of children’s games in the context of festival settings shows that these were serious subjects pertaining to the identity of townspeople. From this perspective, it is probably an oversimplification to argue that children-at-play prints refashioned political events in a non-serious manner or as mere child’s play. Instead, they transposed serious political subjects into the realm of popular culture in which townspeople could comfortably create analogies between their connoisseurship of the quality of cultural performances and their evaluation of political figures.
32Children-at-play prints re-envisioned the events of the Boshin War in terms of the power dynamics of child’s play revolving around the possession of treasures objects—the emperor, Edo Castle and, for the townspeople of Edo, their own culture. They used an affective visual-textual language of desire associated with the psychological dynamics of child’s play and the cultural dynamics of the townspeople culture of Edo. Events of the war were re-envisioned as cultural performances and competitions, creating an interpretive metalevel at which contemporary viewers could see their own culture through the eyes of outsiders—boys representing invading imperial forces. This aspect has not received sufficient attention in past research. Refashioning events of the Boshin War that mattered to Edoites as child’s play kept political satire within the confines of visual entertainment. It refracted the confrontations between pro-imperial and anti-imperial forces through the prism of Edokko culture, thereby juxtaposing the formidable agency of Edoites in the arena of popular culture with the ineptitudes that samurai exhibited in the political field.
33Refashioning thus overlaid historical developments with cultural meanings that could be spun by contemporary viewers according to their own inclinations, deriving pleasure and meaning beyond their immediate correspondence to topical events. To sum up, children-at-play prints have cultural and economic undercurrents that are posited through an affective gaze validating townspeople culture and values. As political caricature, children-at-play prints conflated criticism of political players with an affective affirmation of Edokko cultural values. The style of puzzle pictures that paid equal attention to human figures and surrounding space as well as the technique of mitate allowed children-at-play prints to operate at both a political-satirical and an affective-affirmative level. Since the primary intended audience of these prints were Edoites themselves, it is understandable that they refashioned political figures and events in situations that were familiar to townspeople. This was not possible while the power of the shogunate to enforce censorship was still strong. Only as the shogunate weakened was it possible to draw satirical analogies between political events and contemporary lived realities of Edoites in nishiki-e. Children were a suitable conduit for political satire because they were popular subjects of nishiki-e, and even before when the Kanō School depicted karako (Chinese children). In addition, depictions of children were affective in that they evoked wishes for family prosperity, encapsulated in the term kodakara.
34The shifting moods of children seeking treasured possessions appear to be humorous analogies to the conduct of political players in Edo in 1868. However, their depiction was also serious in validating the culture of Edo’s townspeople at a time when the political situation was in flux. The apparently entertaining aspects of children-at-play prints were prerequisites for issuing political satire. The characteristics of children-at-play prints as political caricature confirm the well-established notion that townspeople had no stake in political events in early modern Japan. The only space that allowed them to take control of producing their own realities was the field of cultural production. Nevertheless, children-at-play prints demonstrate how this cultural production became increasingly politicised as it allowed contemporary political players to be evaluated on the terms of the values of townspeople. It is doubtful whether this form of satirical refashioning can live up to the democratic goals of some political caricature in nineteenth-century Europe. Children-at-play prints rather represent a moment when the popular medium of nishiki-e came close to functioning as political caricature. These prints suggest the possibility of political caricature existing at the intersection of adversarial and affirmative positions.