In Smits’s article, it is argued that by seizing the the moment of the Ansei Earthquake, manazu-e serves as a window on the social and political landscape of the bakumastu Japan, and that the diverse motifs in these namazu-e prints are a reflection of the undermined prestige of bakufu after the earthquake, and of Edo dwellers’ political consciousness as a preliminary imagined community. Through the variable identities and standpoints of the namazu, this catfish became the agent and spokesman of commoners to subtly express and discourse on social issues and desires. (thesis statement) In this paper, I try to argue that Smits’s argument is generally compelling by deriving political implications through the analysis of manazu-e prints…show more content… Since namazu-e prints were cheap and quick woodcut products for mass circulation after the earthquake, the methodology employed to study this category of folk art should focus on the dynamic relationship and symbols as a whole rather than clinging to details which these prints generally lacked, as what Smits does in the paper. Also, in order to examine the political and sociocultural implications of namazu-e, the diverse context of Edo and Japanese society around 1850s should be explored as much as possible so that specific mindsets of publishers and readers could be understood, which is probably so broad and complex that Smits failed to include all key contents. Additionally, I think it might be wise to take the perspective of a common Edo consumer to grasp a feeling of what strikes on and resonate with you under the first impression, and also to take the perspective of the producers and dealers to think about what the stimulus and intention of the production of namatu-e could…show more content… The readers might wonder while reading why namazu turned out to be so popular and so emotionally recognised by Edo commoners, and why this anthropomorphic protagonist could bear so many identities and diverse motifs. This phenomenon had a deep connection with the long history of the governmental prohibition of depictions with a sensational nature and portraits with political sensitive references, as is especially highlighted by Thompson. In order to understand the causal condition of the fads of namazu-e better, which is not so fully developed in Smits’s article, let us put Thompson’s elaboration in the context of the Tempō Reforms. According to him, bakufu’s anxiety about national security and public morality was reinforced with severer censorship, and the shogunate seemed not fully aware that they were encroaching on the only outlet of commoners’ pent-up energies — prints functioning as the medium of the floating Edo, since the besieged mass had been denied any other form of political expression. Thompson emphasised throughout the whole article that the long interaction of the townspeople with the official was a resilient and creative process. In response to bakufu’s stricter edicts, artists as well as print merchants acted flexibly by constantly seeking new ways of expression and circulation and new
