Tokugawa Yoshinobu

A second print depicting Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837–1913), the fifteenth and final shogun of the Edo period, whose resignation in 1867 and the subsequent Meiji Restoration profoundly shaped the world Kiyochika inhabited and recorded. This impression may represent a variant state, a different composition, or a later printing of the same portrait design. Yoshinobu was a subject of considerable public interest throughout the Meiji era, as a living embodiment of the old order who survived into modernity. Kiyochika's portrait likely renders him in formal attire, possibly military dress from the Boshin War period, with attention to insignia and posture appropriate to his rank. The compositional treatment may reflect influence from photographic portraiture, which Kiyochika studied as part of his engagement with Western visual techniques.