One of nine prints from the series Kokkei Nihon Shiki (Humorous Japanese History) (also seen as Kokkei Yamato Hi shiki) which commemorates a Japanese military victory against China in 1894 and is a parody of Hyakki Yakō (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons).  The nine prints read as a scroll when placed next to each other (see image below.)   The top inset of this print, the eighth print in the scroll, depicts various yokai, three ghostly women, three monsters and a red fish, with an inscription reading "Bay".  The bottom inset depicts Chinese in various caricatures, including pleading "rat ships",  a Japanese soldier as the Thunder God, a Japanese soldier dressed in kimono, and a Japanese naval officer being entreated by the Chinese "rat ships." (See the print Rats in a Bag by Kiyochika for another use of this caricature).

The Ukiyo’e Caricatures 1842-1905 website¹ of the Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies, University of Vienna provides the following transcriptions of the kanji associated with each caricature in the bottom half of the print:
1． Tonbi horyo horyo
2． Genbu aitaka Sakuramaru
3． Riku wa kachi go-banzai
4． Pekin kaminari doji-oyaji
5． Hōtō ni mo fude no ayamari
6． Umi katte ji katamaru
7． Teijo jōbu ni mamorezu
8． Heijō chan nenbutsu
9． Atama kakushite shiri kakusazu

¹ University of Vienna http://ukiyoe.univie.ac.at/detail.asp?docid=1442&lang=e&first=1

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/research_collections/anthropology/anthro_sites/boone/gal_jp_sccom2.html
The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons is a theme that has captivated the imagination of Japanese artists for centuries. Since the Heian period (794-1185 AD), and perhaps even earlier, Japanese painters have rendered scenes of demonic creatures romping and cavorting at night. Japanese story tellers say that one night each summer all sorts of terrifying beings make their way to the mountains to enjoy themselves with games and amusements.

The publication by Toriyama Sekien of a book on Hyakki Yakō in 1776 signaled a new interest in the fantastic theme of Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, which was to last throughout the Edo and Meiji periods. Late in the nineteenth century, the printmaker Utagawa Yoshiiku (1833-1904) produced several imaginative illustrations based on the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons. One of these was his Kokkei Wanisshi-ki (Comical Record of Japanese History), which employs the theme of 100 demons to comment on contemporary Japanese military actions in China. 

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Fit to Print: The Dawn of Journalism in Japanese Woodblock Prints

from the Lavenberg and Michels Collections

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon

July 2021

This installation features more than 30 loans from two remarkably rich local resources, the Lavenberg Collection of Japanese Prints, and the Lee & Mary Jean Michels Collection. It was co-curated by Professors Akiko Walley (History of Art and Architecture) and Glynne Walley (East Asian Languages and Literatures) and JSMA Chief Curator Anne Rose Kitagawa. QR codes on selected labels allow visitors to access translations and explanations of the complex wordplay, imagery, and cultural context of these fascinating objects.

https://jsma.uoregon.edu/FittoPrint

UTAGAWA Yoshiiku (歌川芳幾, 1833-1904) Japanese; Meiji period, July 1895 Thunder God and Demons, from the series Comical Record of Japanese History (Kokkei Yamato shiki), upper register “Newly Designed Night Parade of a Hundred Demons” (Shin’an hyakki yagyō); lower register “Shintō Rituals and Lantern Parade Celebrating Total Victory” (Zenshō shukusai shinji andon) Ukiyo-e woodblock print in vertical ōban format; ink and color on paper The Lavenberg Collection of Japanese Prints, IHL.0248

From a series that juxtaposed two kinds of “parade.” The upper register reproduces a type of monster parade that was popularized during the Edo period (1615-1868, see Kawanabe Kyōsai’s slightly later rendition below). The lower register celebrates Japan’s victory in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-5), while satirizing China and its people by punning on proverbs and popular phrases. For instance, the inscription at the top right, “tonbi horyo, horyo,” puns on “tonbi,” meaning the bird “kite,” and “pig tail,” a pejorative term referring to the queue (bianzi) hairstyle worn by Manchu and Chinese men during the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). “Horyo,” on the other hand, means both a kite’s cry and “Prisoner of War.” Yoshiiku’s accompanying caricature shows two Chinese POWs crouching in a posture that one traditionally assumed to mimic a bird in a shadow game. This image was also based on a children’s story, Tonbi horyo, ryo, which was built around the same derogatory puns by Iwaya Sazanami (1870-1933) and published in Boys’ World (Shōnen jidai) on January 15, 1895.

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Print Details

IHL Catalog	#248
Title or Description	Thunder God and Demons
Series	Comical Record of Japanese History (also seen translated as Humorous Japanese History) 滑稽倭日史記  Kokkei Yamato Hi shiki  (also romanized as Kokkei Wanisshi-ki and Kokkei Yamato shiki)
Artist	Utagawa Yoshiiku (1833-1904)
Signature	Sharakusai Yoshiiku 洒落斎芳幾
Seal	artist's red circular seal "Sharaku" (see above)
Publication Date	July 1895 明治廿八年七月 日印刷 仝年仝月 日発行
Publisher	Akiyama Buemon 秋山武右衛門 [Marks: pub. ref. 005; seal ref. not shown]
Impression	excellent
Colors	excellent
Condition	good - light overall toning; a few pin holes; light wrinkling
Genre	ukiyo-e; giga; senso-e (Sino-Japanese War)
Miscellaneous
Format	vertical oban
H x W Paper	14 3/4 x 9 3/4 in. (34.6 x 23.5 cm)
Literature	Conflicts of Interest: Art and War in Modern Japan, Philip K. Hu, et. al., Saint Louis Museum of Art, 2016, p. 192-193
Collections This Print	Spencer Museum of Art (University of Kansas) 1984.0059f; University of Vienna 11038-1; St. Louis Art Museum 1085:2010a-i; International Research Center for Japanese Studies Database of Folklore Illustrations U426_nichibunken_0075; National Library of Australia OJRB Pic 386

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