He-gassen
emakimono
He-gassen (Japanese: 屁合戦, lit. 'Fart competitions'), or Hōhi-gassen (放屁合戦, lit. ''Fart fight''), designates a humorous theme (genre) in a Japanese art scrolls (often also the titles of the scrolls themselves), created during the Edo period (1603–1868) and earlier by various artists, often preferring to remain anonymous, depicting flatulence humor.
He-gassen, as a subject occasionally depicted in Japanese art, is first attested at the end of the Heian Period (794–1185). Toba Sōjō (1053–1140), in addition to his famous Scrolls of Frolicking Animals, is also mentioned as having painted scrolls on themes such as "Phallic Contest" and "He-gassen".
Notable examples
Kachie Emaki (勝得絵巻) (scroll), anonymous (15th century, copy of earlier work), Mitsui Memorial Museum.
Hōhi Gassen Emaki (放屁合戦絵巻) (scroll; 1449, copy of earlier work) Suntory Museum of Art.
Hōhi Gassen Zu (放屁合戦図) (sliding screen) The Museum of Art, Kōchi.
Hōhi Gassen Emaki (放屁合戦絵巻) (two scrolls) by Kawanabe Kyōsai (1867), Kawanabe Kyosai Memorial Museum (in Warabi, Saitama). Separately, a parody by Kyōsai from 1876, bearing the title Fart Contest as Japan Adopts Western Culture Illustrated Scroll (開化放屁合戦絵巻), is in a private collection.
Onara Gassen (於那羅合戦) by Ogawa Usen (1921), Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art.
Waseda University scroll
One scroll in the possession of the Waseda University Library has been digitized.
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This entry incorporates text from “He-gassen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.