hanji-e 判じ絵

A print based on a rebus. A collection of images that might suggest a place name, the name of a courtesan, or a phrase from a song explained in pictures rather than letters. Like picture calendars *mekuragoyomi 盲暦, hanji-e were thought to have been originally devised to aid the illiterate in understanding the meaning of a pun, but many required that the viewer be well-versed in the customs of the day and were considered intellectual games. At first these pictures were positioned in cartouches *koma-e こま絵 in the upper corners of larger paintings, but by the mid-19th century, Nidai Utagawa Hiroshige 二代歌川広重 (1826-69) and Utagawa Yoshifuji 歌川芳藤 (1828-87) designed hanji-e which covered the entire painting surface.