Picture of Oniwakamaru observing the great carp in the pool

Oniwakamaru — 'young demon child' — is the boyhood name of the warrior monk Musashibō Benkei, and his encounter with a great carp at a temple pond is one of the foundational episodes of the Benkei legend. In compositions of this kind the boy is placed crouched at the water's edge, the carp arcing through the pool below in a strong S-curve, the water itself rendered in bokashi gradation between deep indigo and washed mineral blue. The subject had been a staple of musha-e since Kuniyoshi's mid-century treatments of the cycle, and Yoshitoshi takes it up within his ongoing interest in heroic boyhood and the testing of warrior identity. As an emblem of physical courage matched against an animal antagonist, the design also sits within the broader iconography of the carp as a symbol of perseverance — the fish that climbs the waterfall — long associated with Boys' Day.