Wang Xiang (O Sho), from the series "Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety in China (Morokoshi nijushiko)"

Wang Xiang (O Sho), from Utagawa Kuniyoshi's 1843 series Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety in China (Morokoshi nijushiko), illustrates one of the most dramatic and visually distinctive episodes in the traditional Chinese compendium of filial exemplars. The story recounts how Wang Xiang, devoted to his stepmother despite her hostility, sought to obtain fresh fish for her in the depths of winter when all the rivers were frozen. Finding no fish available, Wang Xiang lay down upon the ice to thaw it with his body warmth, whereupon two carp leapt out for him to take home. The narrative is one of the iconic miracle stories of the Twenty-four Paragons, celebrating the principle that genuine filial devotion can move heaven and nature itself to intervene. Kuniyoshi's nishiki-e composition follows the standard iconography, depicting Wang Xiang stretched upon the ice with the miraculous fish emerging from the thawed water. Although Kuniyoshi is best known for warrior prints, his Morokoshi nijushiko series reflects the substantial role of Chinese moral subjects in late Edo ukiyo-e and the broad cultural prestige of Confucian learning in Tokugawa Japan. As color woodblock printing of the late Tenpo era, the print uses the nishiki-e palette and the figural conventions of Utagawa-school design. This impression is preserved in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.