Background:
Ueda Kôchô (上田公長 1788-1850) was a Shijô-school painter, book (ehon) illustrator, and print artist who was born in Osaka and studied with the founder of the Shijô School of painting, Matsumura Goshun (松村呉春 1752-1811). He was also influenced by Goshun's younger brother and leading Kyoto artist Matsumura Keibun (松村景文 1779-1843). Ueda Kôchô's illustrated books include Kôchô gafu (Drawings by Kôchô, 公長画譜 2 vols., 1834) and Suiun ryakuga (Quick sketches of Suiun, 水雲略画 1 vol., 1850; Suiun 水雲 was another artist name or gô used by Kôchô). Ueda Kôchô was also known as a calligrapher, and he was the teacher of Hasegawa Sadanobu I.
Design:
Kôchô's depiction of Mount Fuji and an ebi (shrimp: 蝦) uses a visually arresting design format that divides the picture along a diagonal formed by Fuji's slope and the long antenna of the ebi. Poems could then be effectively placed above and below the diagonal.
Kyôka (playful verses: 狂歌) were 31-syllable (lines of 5-7-5-7-7) comic poems in tanka form (short poems: 短歌 synonymous with waka 和歌) that were unorthodox by virtue of their breaking the classical rules of diction and subject matter used in conventional tanka. Nevertheless, most were somewhat serious in tone. In its most common form kyôka humor was found more in puns and other types of word play, or in oblique spoofing of classical poetry.
References:
Louise Norton Brown, Block Printing & Book Illustration in Japan. London: Routledge & Sons, 1924, p. 94.
Jack Hillier, The Art of the Japanese Book. London: Sotheby's Publications, 1987. pp. 797-799.
H. Kerlen, Catalogue of re-Meiji Japanese Books and Maps in Public Collections in the Netherlands. Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben Publishers, 1996, p. 378.
C.H. Mitchell, The Illustrated Books of the Nanga, Maruyama, Shijo and Other Related Schools of Japan. Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop, 1972, pp. 369-370.
Laurance Roberts, A Dictionary of Japanese Artists. Tokyo & New York: Weatherhill, 1976, p. 86;
Kenji Toda, The Ryerson Collection of Japanese and Chinese Illustrated Books. Art Institute of Chicago, 1931, p. 380;