The Festive Custom of Asahina Continued by Jihinari for Twenty-three years (Nijusan-nen tsuzuki Jihinari kichirei Asahina)

A horizontal nagaban surimono dated 1820, commemorating twenty-three years of the festive Asahina custom continued by the patron Jihinari. Asahina Saburo was a legendary warrior of the Genpei War, frequently invoked in mitate and parody contexts, and the long horizontal format of this print, the nagaban, allowed Toyohiro to construct a procession-like composition appropriate to the anniversary subject. As a surimono, it was privately commissioned and distributed, almost certainly in connection with a poetry circle or similar literary group, and the specificity of the dedication (twenty-three years of an ongoing tradition) marks it as a celebratory document of considerable personal meaning to the patron. Held by the Art Institute of Chicago, the impression demonstrates Toyohiro's late-career skill in the most prestigious of print formats.