「教導立志基」 「四十五」「福地源一郎」

Number forty-five in the Kyōdō Risshi no Motoi series, this print is unusual in depicting Fukuchi Gen'ichirō (福地源一郎, 1841–1906), a leading Meiji-era journalist, playwright, and political writer — among the very few contemporary figures included in a series otherwise populated by historical subjects. Fukuchi served in government, studied in Europe, and founded the Tōkyō Nichinichi Shimbun. His inclusion signals the Meiji project of presenting journalism and intellectual work as legitimate paths of national contribution alongside military or scholarly achievement. Kiyochika likely renders Fukuchi in Western or semi-Western dress appropriate to his era, a visual marker of the modern intellectual that distinguishes this print from the armor and court robes elsewhere in the series.