Otsu-e

Among the techniques used to speed their production was the use of compasses to produce haloes on holy figures and a woodblock to provide the rough outline of a head that was then painted over.

Often, though, there was a satirical bite: demons were portrayed as monks on alms round, or as taking a bath with a comment inscribed such as "Many wash the body but not the mind".

It was dismissed by the sophisticated with cheerful insults, as in Yosa Buson's haiku "Skywards a swallow / darts and targets with droppings / the Ōtsu-e below".

[5] Only Matsuo Bashō, with his respectful appreciation of community culture, treated it more sympathetically: "How did it begin, / the brush in Ōtsu paintings, / with what Buddha's name?

[12] The theme of the blind man attacked by a dog is reinterpreted as the warrior Shimizu Kwanja Yoshitaka raising his sword at a giant rat that is gnawing the end of the scroll he carries.