No. 3: Zhang Fei (Sono san: Chohi), from the series "Three Heroes of Shu (Shoku sanketsu)"

From the Shoku sanketsu, the Three Heroes of Shu, this [shikishiban](/glossary/shikishiban) [surimono](/glossary/surimono) depicts Zhang Fei, the third of the three sworn brothers at the center of the Chinese vernacular novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Held by the Art Institute of Chicago and dated to around 1824, the print is part of a tightly coordinated [triptych](/glossary/triptych) of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei, each presented as a discrete shikishiban with its own poetic inscription space yet designed to function as a coordinated set. Zhang Fei, the fierce and impulsive warrior of the Three Kingdoms tradition, was among the most popular Chinese heroic figures in Edo-period Japan, his image circulating through novels, prints, theater, and connoisseurial objects. Gakutei renders him with characteristic surimono restraint, the metallic pigments accenting armor and weapon detail while the linear keyblock preserves the fierce intensity of the figure's traditional iconography.