「教導立志基」

One of the 教導立志基 (Kyōdō Risshi Ki) prints, this sheet participates in Kiyochika's systematic illustration of historical exemplars for Meiji moral education. The series addressed a market created by the Meiji government's expansion of public schooling and the accompanying demand for illustrated instructional materials that could supplement formal curriculum. Kiyochika's contribution to the series represents a significant portion of his commercial output alongside his better-known landscapes and war prints. The figure in this print, whether a court noble, Confucian scholar, military man, or religious figure, would be rendered with the compositional directness characteristic of the series: a clearly delineated subject, period setting, and an implied or represented moment of virtuous action.