Five People Working Like Ten 1861

Ippōsai Yoshifuji created this woodblock print titled "Five People Working Like Ten." The print, now housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, reflects a period of intense cultural exchange and, let's be honest, some degree of caricature. We see figures representing different nations—Russia, America, England, France, and China—intertwined in a tumbling, acrobatic display. It's a moment of global interaction filtered through a Japanese lens. But, there's a tension here. The exaggerated features and poses assigned to each figure reveal a certain degree of stereotyping. It's easy to imagine that Yoshifuji, living in a time of shifting global power dynamics, was commenting on the West’s intrusion into Asia, a sentiment of both curiosity and caution. How do we read these representations today? The artist invites us to reflect on how we perceive one another, and the stereotypes that can unconsciously shape our understanding.