The print that flipped the censors the bird. In 1842 the Tenpō Reforms came down hard on the floating world: actor prints — the single most popular genre in Edo — were banned outright as frivolous and morally suspect. Kuniyoshi's response is one of the great acts of cheek in the history of Japanese art. If he couldn't draw the actors, he'd draw frogs — famous kabuki heroes and their signature poses performed entirely by a cast of frogs, croaking their way through the great dramatic moments while every single viewer knew exactly which star each amphibian was lampooning.

It's satire and evasion in one stroke: technically no actors depicted, so technically no law broken, while the joke lands squarely on the po-faced authorities who thought they could legislate the theatre out of people's affections. This is Kuniyoshi at his most gloriously subversive — turning a crackdown into a punchline, smuggling the whole beloved world of kabuki past the censors on the backs of frogs. For a brand with a streak of larrikin defiance in it, this one's practically a manifesto.

These are Famous Heroes of the Kabuki Stage Played by Frogs from the print Kaeru zukushi (かゑるづくし) 1842.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳, 1798-1861)