Japan, 1872 (Meiji 5)This engaging sheet is a superb example of a collaborative print (gassaku) designed by two prominent 19th-century artists. The woodblock print is divided into two distinct halves. The top half, designed by the legendary eccentric Kawanabe Kyōsai, depicts a salon named Senensanbō, where a group of literati has gathered to write calligraphy and paint. The composition is playfully completed by two bonsai trees in the corner. The bottom half was designed by Utagawa Yoshitora and is patterned after the popular comic novel Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige (Shank's Mare) by Jippensha Ikku. It portrays the famous comic protagonists, Yajirō and Kitahachi, at the Kawasaki station. In grotesque astonishment and with mouths full of food, they look back at an elegantly dressed Western foreign woman and her child. The print serves as a brilliant visual commentary on Japan's rapid modernization and the clash between the traditional world and Western influences during the early Meiji period.