「教導立志基」

A print from the 教導立志基 (Kyōdō Risshi Ki) educational series, this work presents one of the historical exemplars Kiyochika was commissioned to illustrate for Meiji-era moral instruction. The series drew on a wide roster of figures from Japanese and occasionally Chinese history — calligraphers, Confucian scholars, loyal retainers, military commanders — whose lives illustrated specific virtues such as perseverance, filial piety, or scholarly dedication. Kiyochika's draftsmanship, trained in both Kanō school traditions and Western academic approaches absorbed through contact with foreign teachers, gave these small-format prints a figure-rendering quality distinct from earlier Edo educational illustrated books. The color palette would be restrained relative to his atmospheric landscape work, with narrative clarity privileged over tonal experimentation.