After his release from a jail term because he had had done a painting that criticized the new Meiji government, Kyōsai was able to revive his career as an artist with the help of fellow artists of the Utagawa school. This joint Tōkaidō series, combining the work of two to three artists in each design, uses a framing device of the newly introduced telegraph poles. Kyōsai shows the lovable scoundrels Yaji and Kita, the heroes of a well-known comic novel, leering at a pretty foreign woman drawn by Yoshitora. The smaller scene above shows CHinese scholars enjoying a painting and calligraphy party, similar to events sometimes attended by Kyōsai himself.

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