Saichô-Spearing Long Pole (Nagasao no saichô-sashi 長竿のさい鳥さし), Kobayashi Kiyochika 小林清親, 1882

In response to the Freedom and Popular Rights Movement, in 1882 the Interior Ministry revised its Rules for Assemblies (shûkai jôrei 集会条例--written on the namazu's pole), permitting local officials or the Interior Minister to ban organizations, assemblies and speeches with the potential to endanger public order (i.e., by opponents of the government). Here, government officials (the namazu) are impaling (or striking) the birds (saichô) on which are written the names of the major opposition political parties on the pole labeled "Rules for Assemblies."