Zhu Shouchang (Shu Jusho), from the series "Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety in China (Morokoshi nijushiko)"

Zhu Shouchang (Shu Jusho), from Utagawa Kuniyoshi's 1843 series Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety in China (Morokoshi nijushiko), depicts a Song-dynasty official whose filial story differs in tone from many in the traditional Chinese compendium. According to the standard account, Zhu Shouchang was separated from his birth mother in early childhood when his father took a different principal wife and the birth mother was sent away. Decades later, as an established government official, Zhu Shouchang resolved to find her, vowing not to return to his post until they were reunited. He undertook a long journey to track down his lost mother, and his perseverance was eventually rewarded with the reunion of the family. The story emphasizes filial devotion as adult commitment rather than childhood duty, and resonated with later readers as an example of the lengths to which a son might go to honor a mother. Kuniyoshi's nishiki-e composition typically depicts the moment of the search or the reunion, allowing the official's robes, the road or landscape setting, and the figure of the recovered mother to carry the narrative weight. Although Kuniyoshi is best known for warrior prints, his Morokoshi nijushiko series demonstrates the breadth of Edo ukiyo-e engagement with Chinese moral subjects. As color woodblock printing of the late Tenpo era, the print uses the nishiki-e palette and Utagawa-school figure work. This impression is preserved at the Art Institute of Chicago.