Cai Shun (Sai Jun), from the series "Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety in China (Morokoshi nijushiko)"

Cai Shun (Sai Jun), from Utagawa Kuniyoshi's 1843 series Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety in China (Morokoshi nijushiko), depicts one of the celebrated Confucian exemplars of filial devotion. The traditional account of Cai Shun describes how, during a famine, the boy went into the wild to gather mulberries to feed his hungry mother. He gathered black and white berries into separate baskets, intending to give the ripe black ones to his mother and keep the unripe white ones for himself. When bandits stopped him and asked why, Cai Shun explained his sorting principle; the bandits were so moved by his filial care that they spared him and gave him provisions. The story illustrates the Confucian conviction that genuine filial devotion exerts moral influence even on hardened outlaws. Kuniyoshi's nishiki-e composition follows the standard iconography, depicting Cai Shun with his baskets and often the bandits in the surrounding scene. Although Kuniyoshi is best known for warrior prints, his engagement with Chinese moral and legendary subjects was substantial throughout his career, reflecting the broad cultural prestige of Confucian learning in late Edo Japan. As Edo ukiyo-e of the late Tenpo era, the print employs color woodblock printing with attention to costume pattern and narrative setting. This impression is preserved in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.