Machida City International Print Museum: 'The Playfulness of the Floating World', ukiyo-e that kept laughing
An exhibition focusing on 'laughter' as depicted in ukiyo-e is being held at the Machida City International Print Museum. It runs from September 12 to November 23, 2026, with the first period ending October 12 and the second period beginning October 15. Centered on the museum's ukiyo-e collection, about 250 works are on display across both periods.
The theme is that even in the late Edo and Meiji eras, when natural disasters and war stirred anxiety, ukiyo-e continued to depict laughter through caricature and satire. The exhibition has six sections, beginning with Utagawa Hiroshige's views of famous places and caricatures, and Utagawa Kuniyoshi's comic and satirical prints.
The following sections introduce namazu-e made after the Ansei Edo earthquake, prints of the 1862 measles epidemic, and 'awate-e' showing people flustered by the arrival of foreign fleets after the Namamugi Incident. Further on come Shōsai Ikkei's enlightenment pictures that layer people struggling with modernization over famous places, nishiki-e newspapers, and Kobayashi Kiyochika's 'punch pictures.' The structure lets you trace how prints reflected the atmosphere of the age.
Because woodblock prints could be printed in large numbers at once, topical jokes and irony spread quickly through society. The idea that the expression of laughter was itself the media of the time is very interesting to a printmaking enthusiast like me.
During the run there are commemorative lectures and gallery talks, and you can also enjoy the small concurrent exhibition 'Miró and Tàpies: Turmoil in Postwar Spain' (free admission). Admission is 1,000 yen for general visitors, and the museum closes on Mondays, so check the schedule on the official website before you go.
Source: Machida City International Print Museum
The theme is that even in the late Edo and Meiji eras, when natural disasters and war stirred anxiety, ukiyo-e continued to depict laughter through caricature and satire. The exhibition has six sections, beginning with Utagawa Hiroshige's views of famous places and caricatures, and Utagawa Kuniyoshi's comic and satirical prints.
The following sections introduce namazu-e made after the Ansei Edo earthquake, prints of the 1862 measles epidemic, and 'awate-e' showing people flustered by the arrival of foreign fleets after the Namamugi Incident. Further on come Shōsai Ikkei's enlightenment pictures that layer people struggling with modernization over famous places, nishiki-e newspapers, and Kobayashi Kiyochika's 'punch pictures.' The structure lets you trace how prints reflected the atmosphere of the age.
Because woodblock prints could be printed in large numbers at once, topical jokes and irony spread quickly through society. The idea that the expression of laughter was itself the media of the time is very interesting to a printmaking enthusiast like me.
During the run there are commemorative lectures and gallery talks, and you can also enjoy the small concurrent exhibition 'Miró and Tàpies: Turmoil in Postwar Spain' (free admission). Admission is 1,000 yen for general visitors, and the museum closes on Mondays, so check the schedule on the official website before you go.
Source: Machida City International Print Museum
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