The Brave Woman Tomoe Gozen and Takezo Saburoemon, from the series Famous Warriors in Combat

This 1856 woodblock print, titled "The Brave Woman (Yūfu) Tomoe Gozen and Takezō Saburoemon, from the series Famous Warriors in Combat (Buyū kōmei kumiuchi soroe)," is held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (ukiyo-e.org accession sc144616, MFA object 462053). The print depicts Tomoe Gozen, the legendary twelfth-century female warrior of the Genpei War celebrated in the Tale of the Heike as the formidable companion of Minamoto no Yoshinaka, in the act of grappling with the warrior Takezō Saburoemon. Tomoe Gozen was one of the most popular subjects of Edo musha-e (warrior prints) and a stock figure of yūfu ("brave woman") iconography, and Yoshiharu's print belongs squarely within the Kuniyoshi-school tradition of warrior portraiture in which his master had transformed the genre during the 1840s. The series Buyū kōmei kumiuchi soroe ("A Selection of Famous Warriors in Wrestling Combat") was one of several large warrior series Yoshiharu produced in the mid-1850s, capitalizing on the late-Edo audience for sensational depictions of historical and legendary heroes. The print is part of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston's extensive holdings of late-Edo Utagawa-school musha-e and is a representative example of Yoshiharu's most ambitious warrior work.