「教導立志基」 「十二」「袈裟御前」

This print from Kyōdō Risshi no Motoi features Kesa Gozen (袈裟御前), a woman of the late Heian period whose story of sacrifice became a celebrated moral exemplar. According to the tale, she was caught between her husband Wataru and a former admirer, Endō Moritō, and chose to die in her husband's place, sending him away while placing herself in Moritō's path. Kiyochika likely renders her in a dramatically lit interior scene consistent with his broader interest in chiaroscuro, the low candlelight or moonlight setting amplifying the narrative tension. As one of the few female subjects in this historically weighted series, her inclusion underscores that personal virtue and self-sacrifice were presented as moral ideals independent of gender.