Kō Musashi-no-kami Moronao

Kō Musashi-no-kami Moronao was the court official whose insults provoked Lord Asano to draw his blade in the shogun's palace—the act that set the forty-seven ronin vendetta in motion. This preparatory drawing from the second half of the 1860s shows Yoshitoshi's working process: the ink-and-color sketch captures the composition's essential elements before transfer to the woodblock. Moronao was history's designated villain of the Chushingura cycle, but Yoshitoshi's studies often render even villains with psychological complexity.