Kusunoki Masashige separating his son, Masayuki, at Sakurai, 1883

This print depicts one of the most celebrated scenes in Japanese historical iconography: Kusunoki Masashige parting from his teenage son Masatsura at Sakurai station before the Battle of Minatogawa in 1336, where Masashige would die in loyalty to Emperor Go-Daigo. The farewell scene, in which Masashige instructs his son to survive and continue serving the imperial cause, became a paradigmatic image of martial loyalty (chūgi) and was extensively promoted during the Meiji period as the state emphasized emperor-centered patriotism. Kiyochika rendered the scene in 1883, a period of heightened nationalist sentiment. The composition likely positions the two figures in a landscape setting with suitably somber atmospheric treatment, consistent with the gravity of the subject.