Goro refers almost certainly to Soga no Goro Tokimune, one of the two brothers celebrated in the Soga Monogatari, a revenge cycle among the most enduring subjects in Japanese popular performance and printmaking. Mori's version likely presents the warrior in full armor or battle readiness, drawing on an iconographic tradition established in Edo-period [musha-e](/glossary/musha-e) and theatrical imagery. Unlike nineteenth-century precedents by artists such as Kuniyoshi, Mori would have approached the subject through a [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) sensibility — personal interpretation, simplified line, and limited palette rather than the densely patterned polychrome surfaces of [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e). The warrior's attributes — kumadori-style facial expression, eboshi cap or kabuto helmet, sword — would anchor viewer recognition of the figure. Mori's self-carved blocks and hand-printed impressions give the image a directness of surface texture absent from commercially produced prints.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Goro was created by Yoshitoshi Mori (森義利).
Goro depicts figures and warriors.
