Act VIII (Hachidanme), from the series "Perspective Pictures of the Storehouse of Loyal Retainers (Uki-e kanadehon Chushingura)"

Act VIII (Hachidanme) from Kitao Masayoshi's perspective-picture treatment of Kanadehon Chushingura, in the Art Institute of Chicago and dated to circa 1791-1794, is the famous Michiyuki travel scene in which Konami and her stepmother Tonase journey to deliver Konami to her promised marriage with Rikiya, son of the loyal retainer Yuranosuke. Set against the road and the open landscape rather than the deep interior spaces of earlier acts in the series, this print gives Masayoshi the opportunity to integrate his perspectival training with the open-air landscape modes he would develop more fully in later landscape ryakugashiki. The horizontal o-oban format allows for a panoramic, processional composition, with the figures moving across the surface as they travel and the landscape elements - hills, trees, and roadside features - articulated in receding planes. The scene is one of the most lyrical in the entire Chushingura cycle, traditionally performed with elaborate music and dance, and Masayoshi's print captures its slow ceremonial unfolding. As part of the complete narrative series held at the Art Institute, this sheet helps document the full range of perspectival treatments that the artist brought to one of Edo's defining kabuki narratives.