He-Gassen 12

Created during Japan’s Edo period in the late 1840s, the He-Gassen (translated literally as “fart battle”) scroll measures approximately thirty-four feet long with about fifteen different scenes depicting various forms of vicious vapors and tempestuous toots. While the original creator remains unknown, it’s likely that the scroll was a political cartoon of sorts, serving as commentary on a new wave of unwelcome Western influence. At the time, xenophobia was rampant under the Tokugawa shogunate. Japan was struggling against the external influence and cultural threats of Europeans and Americans, who were forcing unfavorable trade agreements on the empire. One theory is that He-Gassen shows wealthy merchants who collaborated with foreign powers being attacked by the flatulent firestorm, while another suggests that the Westerners themselves are being bombarded by the blasts.