A caricature picture *giga 戯画 which was popular in the 17th-19th century that displayed the Edo period's fondness for improvisation and subtle innuendo. Thought to be so termed after Toba Sōjō 鳥羽僧正 (1053-1140), the author of the humorous ink-drawn handscroll sketches, the Chōjū jinbutsu giga 鳥獣人物戯画 (Kōzanji 高山寺, Kyoto). Toba-e were generally rough sketches involving subtle puns or comic situations.
Based on various early 18th-century written sources, it appears that this type of caricature became popular between 1716-36. The earliest extant picture books *ehon 絵本 of this genre are the Keihitsu toba-sha 軽筆鳥羽車, the Toba-e sangokushi 鳥羽絵三国史 and the Toba-e ōgi-no-mato 鳥羽絵扇の的. Toba-e designed by Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760-1849) and Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (also known as Andō 安藤 Hiroshige, 1797-1858) also remain today. In the late 19th century, several comic magazines were published under the name toba-e.