Hojo Tokiyori, from the series "Twenty-four Generals for the Katsushika Circle (Katsushika nijushisho)"

From the Katsushika nijushisho, the Twenty-four Generals for the Katsushika Circle, this shikishiban surimono depicts Hojo Tokiyori, the fifth Hojo regent of the Kamakura shogunate, a historical figure renowned for his administrative reforms and his eventual taking of Buddhist vows. Held by the Art Institute of Chicago and dated to around 1822, the print belongs to one of Gakutei's most ambitious series, a survey of twenty-four military exemplars drawn from Japanese history that paralleled his Honchoren Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety. Tokiyori's biography, with its combination of effective rule and religious withdrawal, made him a favorite subject for medieval and Edo-period literary and theatrical works, and his inclusion in the Katsushikaren series situates him within a Japanese martial pantheon assembled specifically for kyoka commentary. Gakutei renders him with the precision he brought to all his historical figures, using metallic pigments to suggest the gleam of armor and the lustre of formal robes.