Subject: The ronin Fuwa Katsuemon Masatane (kabuki name) – inspecting his sword
Series: Seichu gishi den (Stories of the true loyalty of the faithful samurai)
Print No: 1.4
Artist: Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861)
Signature: Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi ga and kiri seal
Date: 1847-48
Cens: Yoshimura – Muramatsu
Publisher: Ebi-ya Rinnosuke
Size: Oban tate-e, 36.8 x 25,4 cm
Condition: Good impression, colour and condition
Price: TBC
True name: Fuwa Kazuemon Masatane (不破 数右衛門 正種)
Age: 34
Katana mei: Norimitsu, length unknown
Wakizashi mei: Norimitsu, length unknown
Tale of the text – with a little twist
Masatane was the kind of samurai who walked into a room and made everyone else feel like they needed to stand up straighter. Over six feet tall, fiery‑tempered, and obsessed with martial arts, he knew every trick in the Karuma Shindō sword school. He also excelled at suemono giri — test‑cutting bodies — which is not exactly the kind of hobby you bring up at dinner parties.
One day, a local paper merchant’s wife died. She had been notoriously unfaithful, and the whole town knew it. Masatane, who had just gotten a shiny new sword and apparently lacked both impulse control and basic social boundaries, thought, “Perfect! A sturdy corpse to test my blade on.” So he marched to the cemetery, dug her up, and sliced away like he was auditioning for a very questionable cooking show.
Shockingly, the merchant did not appreciate this. He complained to the authorities, who agreed that grave‑robbing and corpse‑chopping were, in fact, not great samurai behaviour. Masatane’s lord reluctantly fired him, probably thinking, “I can’t believe I have to say this out loud.”
Now disgraced, Masatane wandered around with the vibe of a man who had been told, “We’re not mad, just disappointed,” but on a cosmic scale.
When he heard about the Akao clan’s disaster, he sprinted back to the castle, weapons in hand, ready to redeem himself through righteous vengeance. Oboshi Yoshio, however, took one look at him and said, “Yeah… no. I’m not recruiting the guy who got fired for corpse‑butchery.”
Masatane, desperate to prove he wasn’t just a walking red flag, swore he would apologize at his lord’s grave and pledge loyalty unto death. This dramatic gesture worked — Oboshi finally let him in on the secret vendetta plan.
Once they reached the Kanto region, Masatane fought with such ferocity that everyone basically forgot the whole “dug up a corpse to test a sword” incident. Heroism really does wonders for your reputation.
For an accurate translation of the print text, I would encourage you to get the book: Kuniyoshi -The faithful samurai by David R Weinberg