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This artwork is called Fuushi-e or sartrical drawings created in the late Edo era.
An open antagonism between political authority and popular culture was begun in the 1840's, with the so-called Tempo Reforms. The harshest attack on the popular print was made by the bakufu and the bakufu's reforms effectively attempted to suppress ukiyo-e entirely, by banning its staples, prints of actors and courtesans, and fixing the price of a print at a low standard that essentially forbade luxurious productions, while drastically limiting publisher's profits.
The bird men that eat millet grains grown by farmers are depicted in this artwork and the name of the bird men such as Awakui-dori (which both means a bird eating millet and a panicking bird) and Maru-dori (which can both mean a round bird or a bird taking everything away) with a sarcastic tone.
Houjyoe is a Buddhist ritual where people release captured fish or birds into the field in order to remind them to refrain from animal killings. On the right hand corner, the samurai warrior who is having a fun with playing a Naruko or a bird clapper with a sarcastic tone is depicted here.
In the satrical drawings or caricatures created at that time, the animals in form of people are often depicted with sarcasm. In the kimono worn by the bird men, gold koban coins, farming tools and farmers' houses are depicted as graphic patterns.
Such kind of social aspect of ukiyo-e can often be found in the artworks created at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Fair impression Slight stains and soiling
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