The Annotated

Ashura-chō 阿修羅帖

(The Ashura Notebook), 1920-1921

Drawings by Itō Chūta 伊東忠太

Edited by Sugimura Kōtarō 杉村広太郎

Click on a volume for details

Introduction to Ashura-chō

Ashura-chō (The Ashura Notebook, or The Warring Gods Notebook), a five-volume illustrated work published between 1920 and 1921, is a visual and literary satire of World War I and its geopolitical aftermath. The work brings together 500 satirical cartoons drawn by the renowned architect and architectural historian Itō Chūta between July 28, 1914, the recognized outbreak of the war, and October 31, 1919, the date of his final sketch, drawn shortly after the Privy Council approved Japan’s ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. Originally produced without any intention of publication, the sketches were later assembled and issued as a coherent work through the initiative of Arashida Eisuke, Itō's fellow native of Yonezawa and proprietor of the Kokusuisha publishing house, and edited by the distinguished journalist and essayist Sugimura Kōtarō (pen name: Sugimura Sojinkan). The resulting volumes combine Itō’s multicolor woodblock caricatures with pithy, ironic commentary by prominent literary, political, theatrical, and journalistic figures of the Taishō period.* 

*For a list of commentators, see Ashura-chō Commentator List. 

When war broke out on July 28, 1914, Itō was a professor at Tokyo Imperial University’s College of Engineering. Deeply affected by the rapidly unfolding global crisis, he began to express his reactions through spontaneous satirical sketches. In the preface to Volume 1 of Ashura-chō, he recalls:

These satirical cartoons, aptly described as "deeply personal manga," would likely have remained unseen by the public had they not drawn the attention of Arashida Eisuke, who persuaded Itō to publish them.[1]

Itō's caricatures portray nations as grotesque, clownish, or monstrous figures, often half-naked or draped in loincloths, embroiled in chaotic scenes that satirize key events of the period. These range from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, at Sarajevo, which brought long-standing tensions across Europe to a boiling point, to Japan's imperial ambitions in China, the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, the Bolshevik Revolution and the spread of "extremist" ideologies, and the Paris Peace Conference, which redefined borders and alliances in the postwar world. Interspersed with these worldwide events are Itō's visual commentaries on Japanese domestic politics and the national sport of sumo. 

The title Ashura-chō references the ashura, belligerent deities of Indian mythology known for their endless battles, symbolizing the global strife that defined the era. Sugimura, a journalist and editor with deep knowledge of international affairs, selected contributors and paired their concise, often cutting commentary with each illustration. The 296 contributors included authors such as Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, Kikuchi Kan, and Yosano Akiko; the actress Mori Ritsuko and actors Soganoya Jūrō and Soganoya Gorō; the manga artist Kitazawa Rakuten; and Sugimura himself, who wrote 51 of the commentaries. Other contributors included politicians, military leaders, prominent business leaders, scientists, and nine Western luminaries. Itō wrote 13 of the commentaries accompanying his own drawings.

In a July 21, 1919, article titled "Professor Itō Chūta's Cartoon Diary of the World War," appearing in the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, it was announced that the paper would begin serializing his black-and-white World War I cartoons, or giga, from Ashura-chō, which were "drawn in a lively, exaggerated visual style." The article noted that these cartoons were Itō's "hobbies," amusements and diversions beyond his usual scholarly work. It went on to mention that the cartoons would be compiled into a bound five-volume work for broader public presentation.[2]

Three months after this article ran, the first preorder advertisement for Ashura-chō appeared in the morning edition of the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun on October 19, 1919. The advertisement read, in part: "Ashura-chō, a side history of the World War in pictures and words" and "Preorders accepted; application deadline December 20."[3]

For the five-volume work, publisher Arashida employed his proprietary Kokusui Printing Method (國粹印刷法), combining carved multicolored woodblocks with mechanical presses to achieve a vivid format suitable for mass production.[4] The commentary texts were reproduced using a combination of letterpress and woodcut calligraphy, and each volume was cloth-bound and enclosed in a decorative case.

Ashura-chō was sold by subscription in two editions. The ordinary edition used "Mitsubishi Special Improved Heavy Paper" (三菱特製改良厚紙), while the deluxe edition used heavier "authentic Echizen paper" (本場越前厚手用紙). The ordinary edition was priced at ¥40 per volume if purchased individually, or ¥32 per volume if all five volumes were purchased at once. The deluxe edition cost ¥90 per volume individually or ¥75 per volume when purchased as a complete set.[5]

Through its richly satirical lens, Ashura-chō offers both a scathing critique and a darkly humorous primer on the geopolitics of the early twentieth century. It stands as a remarkable fusion of visual art and political commentary, shaped by the liberal, experimental spirit of the Taishō era, an atmosphere of intellectual openness that would become far more constrained in the decades that followed. Yet the series also mirrors the prejudices embedded in Japanese society at the time and Japan's imperial ambitions. Nowhere is this clearer than in Itō’s many China-related sketches, where he adopts the contemptuous, caricatured view of a weakened China that had taken hold in Japan since the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95. 

Filled with Itō’s characteristic sharp wit, the sketches of Ashura-chō blend incisive satire with the condescending perspective he often adopted toward China and even toward Japan’s own allies, a perspective shaped in part by the comfortable geopolitical distance from which Japan observed the war after seizing Germany’s concessions in Qingdao, China, and Micronesia by late 1914. Viewed in the context of the period, Itō’s condescension toward China and his sometimes disrespectful treatment of Japan’s Western allies reflected not simply personal prejudice, but the racial and imperial hierarchies of the age: Japan sought recognition as an equal among the great powers even as those powers, particularly Great Britain and the United States, continued to view non-white Japan through assumptions of racial superiority that also underwrote their own imperial ambitions. 

[1] The phrase “deeply personal manga” is my translation of the Japanese term 極私的な「漫画」, used in “The Eccentric Architect: Itō Chūta’s Grotesque Satirical Drawings,” Fragile Books, accessed June 12, 2025, https://www.fragile-books.com/products/阿修羅帖. On page 12 of his 2025 book, World Observation: Empire, Architecture, and the Global Archive of Itō Chūta, architectural historian Matthew Mullane observes: "He spent much of his early career hiding his monster research, keeping it in his private notebooks..."

[2] 伊東忠太 and 杉村廣太郎, 阿修羅帖 第一巻 [Ashura-chō, vol. 1], ed. Kurakata Shunsuke 倉方俊輔 (Tokyo: Yumani Shobō ゆまに書房, 2013), p. 8. Translation and editorial adjustments are my own, based on Kurakata’s introductory commentary. 

[3] Ashura-chō, vol. 1, p. 10.

[4] “Thematic Exhibition: ‘The Bookshelf of Sojinkan’—Explanation,” Former Murakawa Villa Citizen Guide Newsletter, March 20, 2014, issued by the Former Murakawa Villa Citizen Guide Office, Abiko City Board of Education, accessed June 12, 2025, https://www.city.abiko.chiba.jp/event/shiseki_bunkazai/kyu_murakawa/murakawabacknumber.files/h26_all.pdf.

[5] Ashura-chō, vol. 1, p. 8.

[6] The Itō Chūta archives housed at the Architectural Institute of Japan include all 3,717 of his hand-drawn and hand-colored satirical postcards, as well as a number of conceptual sketches preserved in his personal notebooks. For the postcard gallery, see Architectural Institute of Japan, “Hagaki-e Gallery,” accessed June 12, 2025, http://news-sv.aij.or.jp/da2/hagakie/gallery_3_hagakie2.htm.

Note on Terminology: Yōkai, Oni, Ashura, and Demons

In Japanese folklore, yōkai is a broad term for supernatural creatures or spirits, ranging from mischievous shapeshifters to ominous specters, while oni (often translated as ogres or demons) are a specific kind of yōkai, depicted as horned, ferocious ogre-like figures associated with evil, misfortune, and the punishment of the wicked (for example, as torturers of sinners in Buddhist hell). The word ashura (from Sanskrit asura) comes from Buddhist cosmology and refers to proud, warlike demigods or titans fated to eternal conflict with the gods, a concept that evokes demon-like warrior beings and the notion of ceaseless strife. In Itō Chūta’s satirical Ashura-chō, these categories overlap: he caricatures contemporary figures as grotesque yōkai and oni and invokes the endless battles of the ashura to blend folkloric and religious imagery in a pointed allegory of the chaos and folly of the World War I era. I use the English word “demon” to describe the various supernatural beings depicted in Itō's sketches only as a convenient shorthand; it does not capture their distinct origins or meanings. 

[1] Matthew Mullane, World Observation: Empire, Architecture, and the Global Archive of Itō Chūta, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2025, p. 37.

[2] Mullane, World Observation, p. 44. 

Japan's Involvement in WWI

Summary edited and condensed from Jürgen Melzer, “Warfare 1914–1918 (Japan),” International Encyclopedia of the First World War, Department of History and Cultural Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, accessed June 12, 2025, https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/warfare-1914-1918-japan/?format=pdf.

Japan participated in World War I as one of the Allied Powers, but its direct military involvement was largely limited to the campaign against German forces defending Germany's Jiaozhou Bay concession, whose administrative center and principal port was Qingdao, or Tsingtao, in Shandong, China.  

Japan entered World War I following a British request for help against German forces in East Asia, invoking the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance. On August 15, 1914, Japan issued an ultimatum demanding Germany withdraw from Chinese waters and surrender its Jiaozhou Bay concession. When Germany failed to respond, Japan declared war on August 23 and quickly besieged Qingdao, Germany’s base in Shandong Province. Backed by overwhelming naval and ground superiority, and supported by a small British contingent, Japan launched air raids, naval blockades, and artillery bombardments. The Germans surrendered on November 7, 1914, after a prolonged siege. The conflict showcased new methods of modern warfare, including trench battles, aerial bombing, and heavy artillery.

Following victory, Japan issued the Twenty-One Demands to China in 1915, solidifying control over Shandong and sparking Chinese outrage.

Japan's wartime contributions gained it international prestige and territorial gains, including the former German Pacific islands placed under League of Nations mandates. However, its expansionist ambitions strained relations with Britain and the United States, and Japan was compelled to return Qingdao at the 1922 Washington Conference, and in 1923 the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was dissolved. Though World War I elevated Japan to great power status, it also set the stage for future isolation and militarist conflict in Asia.