According to the Institut für Ostasienwissenschaften der Universität Wien the text reads:

sake wa kinshu de iroke made
yameru kokoro de mi o kiyome
hibi furu kabe nagamete kurashimasho
sore kan de mo nonde mo zazen mame
bonsan ga wachō e watararete
sorede hōbō hiromuru ten
shūshi o sā hiromeyo

Sake is not allowed nor are women
Let us purify our heart with a renouncing heart!
We shall live looking at the humble wall!
Biting and drinking small beans
the Zen monk came over to Japan
thereby broadening the heaven
Let us propagate our faith!

Sepp Linhart wrote of this print: "Apart from the fact that this print once again gives Kuniyoshi an opportunity to draw the faces of the three popular actors who performed the Totetsuruken, and apart from the many puns the text contains, it is at the same time a heavy criticism of the Tenpō Reforms. The message is that the government wants the people to live like Zen monks, without consuming alcohol, without erotic entertainment, only living according to Buddhist and Confucian teachings, but even the monks can't live such a life and therefore they enjoy themselves playing ken. Moreover, if we take a look into the actors' faces, they are full of rage and anger, similarly to the actors' faces drawn as fishes on the two prints of the series Uo no kokoro (Hearts of the fishes...)." Quoted from Andon 83, p. 12.