Yoshitoshi - Okubo Hikozaemon Tadanori

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Okubo Hikozaemon is carrying his lord, rescuing him from the fire on a battleground. From the series Twenty-four Accomplishments in Imperial Japan (Kôkoku nijûshi kô) ( 皇國 二十四 功 -)'. It consists of images of various people (mostly samurai) who played notable roles in Japanese history. It dates from towards the end of Yoshitoshi's career, when he was about forty-two. The series was very popular while Yoshitoshi was alive, and it went through numerous printings. Several different states may be seen of these early printings (all with a red title cartouche); in some (perhaps the earliest, since it was the most work to produce) the text panel has several inclined bokashi stripes across it; in others (perhaps later), a simple band of bokashi at the top and bottom; and in others, no decoration at all. The entire set was posthumously re-published between 1893 and 1895 by Matsuki Heikichi; paler colours were used, and some block changes were made. The easiest tell-tale for t