Asobi-e: The Value of Pure Play

Comical Cats

Yoshiharu Ikuta 1828-1888

The asobi-e, or "play picture", is a broad and encompassing genre still poorly understood outside of Japan, with no major works on the subject in Western languages to date. Under the label of "play picture", all sorts of sub-genres have been gathered, including Moji-e (Letter Pictures), Yose-e (Assemblage Pictures), Kage-e (Shadow Pictures), Joge-e (Two Way Pictures), Nazo-e (Riddle Pictures) and the large, related genre of Giga (Comic Prints of any sort).

Asobi-e and Share

Although the majority of asobi-e is found in the nineteenth century, with Hokusai, Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, Kyosai and Yoshifuji being some of its acknowledged masters, asobi-e can be found throughout the history of ukiyo-e. For at the defining core of the asobi-e and its related sub-genres is a key concept for understanding Tokugawa Period culture, share, or the stylishly humorous. Share, including connotations of originality, wit and cleverness, can be better understood through contrast with another variety of the Tokugawa humor, kokkei.

Whereas kokkei may include humor based on the disruption of social conventions, such as low or scatological subject matter, or just plain silliness for its own sake, share suggests a creative intelligence playing with the material of society and convention in an imaginative and fashionably unexpected manner. Although kokkei elements can certainly be found in the broad asobi-e genre, it is share that is the leading force in the many unique and usually short-lived (for wit cannot be repeated) forms that the asobi-e took.

Lifestyle and Entertainment Prints

Asobi-e are one of the best sources of evidence that the interest the general populace of Edo took in woodblock prints was not as high art but as entertainment, fashion and expressions of style.

If the many functions that ukiyo-e served in society can be compared to those of a modern newspaper, with the events of the day, movie stills, fashion trends, advertisements, and the travel section all represented, then asobi-e is akin to the comics page.

Its humor is witty, fun, occasionally political, but most of all aimed at provoking surprise and laughter. And like the comics page, its wit can be appreciated alone, but is best enjoyed when the laugh is shared with another. Surely the impetus to purchase an asobi-e was social, starting with an individual act of appreciation, but driven by a desire to be the bearer of laughter to others.

In the case of complex riddle pictures, we can easily imagine a group of people gathered around the same print, competing to be the first to solve a new area of the work and share the discovery with one's fellows. Or with shadow pictures, the very design of the print allows it to be folded or covered over, so that the owner of the print can present the image as a puzzle to an acquaintance.

Other asobi-e lack the two-part structure of mystery and discovery, but can still be appreciated as witty or unexpected combinations of elements, such as Kuniyoshi's human-like cats, or Toyokuni's animal-like humans. The asobi-e leaves us with little doubt that comedy is a social form, meant to be shared, and bringing people together in moments of delight and discovery thereby.

Asobi-e are delightful and full of witty breakthroughs, but are they not shallow and short-lived? Once the riddle has been understood or the joke told, is the print still of interest?

Absolutely, I would argue. For these pieces represent some of the most original and unique expressions in ukiyo-e, revealing the artists' imaginative life. What drove Kuniyoshi to imagine a group of 14 men supporting one another in a grand geometric "yawn-stopper" or human figures composed of various smaller figures, with titles such as "People Made a Fool of Him"?

Play on the Unconscious

Witty and clever works they surely are, but beyond the humor these pieces also reveal something of Kuniyoshi's understanding of the interconnectedness of human life, that we are all "made of others" who support us, and without which none of us would be able to rise above any other. More often the messages of asobi-e are not so logical, but border on dream life, that world of non-rational play with language and images that is the unconscious. Figures become words, are composed of letters, a poet made of his poem, a pair of battling warriors with upraised swords spelling out the word for bravery. Animals become people, and people animals, blurring the line between the two. Things are not what they appear to be: a whale in shadow is actually a man being crushed by a tanuki's giant scrotum; a blurred and illegible image, when placed beside a convex mirror, takes on unexpected clarity. The "play" of asobi-e is the freedom to make the impossible happen, and that is what allows this genre to touch unique depths of the Japanese psyche - and the psyches of contemporary viewers.

Asobi-e - Undiscovered Market Niche

On the current market, the asobi-e occupies a borderline position, with many recognized as highly desirable masterpieces, but the larger number still overlooked and misunderstood. Asobi-e are in many cases, like moji-e, difficult to classify as art, sometimes resulting in a low evaluation, with the exception of course of those that bear a famous name, such as Hokusai. But whether or not we recognize asobi-e as fine art, these pieces are of tremendous interest to collectors for their cultural value, the view of Edo society and its interests they provide. They are also one of the few areas of Japanese prints where success did not bring about endless repetition. As the goal of the asobi-e was to be unusual and surprising, the "share" could only be repeated so often, making most asobi-e unique. Endlessly inventive and entertaining, asobi-e are not only expressions of the wit and imagination of individual artists, but also reflections of Edo culture and style.

Dan McKee

The author, Dan McKee is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Japanese literature program at Cornell University, NY.  He has a Master of the Fine Arts degree from Syracuse University, as well as an M.A. from Cornell.

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