Preparatory drawing for the left and right sheets of Picture of the Gojō Bridge from the Chronicle of Yoshitsune

This 1881 ink-on-paper preparatory drawing by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, for the left and right sheets of *Picture of the Gojō Bridge from the Chronicle of Yoshitsune*, comprises two sheets of unshaded black line work on cream paper marked with scattered brown foxing stains. The left sheet shows an armored figure wielding a long polearm diagonally across the page, the costume built from layered, cord-bound plates and swirling drapery, with a sketched bridge railing and hills along the top edge and small handwritten notes beside the figure. The right sheet depicts a youthful figure with upswept hair and a raised arm standing on the wooden planks of a bridge whose carved balustrade panels hold small inset landscape sketches, beneath a crescent-moon shape at upper left and beside a red seal and a column of text at lower right.