was the pen name of (1829–1894), a Japanese author and journalist.

Career

Kanagaki Robun, the son of a fishmonger, was originally known for light fiction in the ''

gesaku is an alternative style, genre, or school of Japanese literature. In the simplest contemporary sense, any literary work of a playful, mocking, joking, silly or frivolous nature may be called gesaku. Unlike predecessors in the literary field, gesak ...

'' genre. He is said to have met painter

Kawanabe Kyosai Kawanabe may refer to: *Kawanabe (surname), a Japanese surname *Kawanabe Dam, dam in Kagoshima Prefecture *Kawanabe District, Kagoshima, a former district in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan *Kawanabe, Kagoshima was a town located in Kawanabe Distric ...

while writing an account of the

1855 Edo earthquake The , was the third Ansei Great Earthquake, which occurred during the late-Edo period. It occurred after the 1854 Nankai earthquake, which took place about a year prior. The earthquake occurred at 22:00 local time on 11 November. It had an epic ...

on the day after it happened. Kyosai's sketch of a

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...

, accompanying Robun's text, was Kyosai's first single-sheet

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk ...

woodblock print Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is creat ...

. Its commercial success saw Robun producing a sequence of catfish pictures (known as

namazu-e In Japanese mythology, the or is a giant underground catfish who causes earthquakes. The creature lives under the islands of Japan and is guarded by the god Takemikazuchi enshrined at Kashima, who restrains the catfish with a stone. When t ...

). In 1874 the pair collaborated to create what was effectively Japan's first

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the for