No. 1: Liu Bei (Sono ichi: Ryubi), from the series "Three Heroes of Shu (Shoku sanketsu)"

From the Shoku sanketsu, this shikishiban surimono depicts Liu Bei, the first and senior of the three Shu heroes, the founder of the Shu Han kingdom in the early third-century Chinese Three Kingdoms period. Held by the Art Institute of Chicago and dated to around 1824, the print presents Liu Bei with the formal dignity appropriate to his role as the moral center of the Three Kingdoms tradition, his quiet authority distinguishing him from the more dynamic visual treatment of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei in the companion sheets. The three prints together form a coordinated triptych on the theme of fraternal loyalty and political destiny, drawing on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms as one of the most influential Chinese vernacular novels in Edo-period Japan. Gakutei's treatment uses metallic pigments to accent armor and costume detail while preserving the linear precision that distinguishes the surimono format, and the surviving impression at the Art Institute documents the high production standards of the privately-commissioned print culture in which the series was created.