YOSHITOSHI. Magaki Heikuro climbs the staircase with his horse.

Very rare print from the series “Tales of the Floating World in Eastern Brocade”. The stairs seemed to have a particular allure to samurai equestrians. “The most famous story, passed down through generations of storytellers, has it that in 1634, Magaki Heikuro swiftly rode his horse up and down the grade to fetch a branch of plum blossoms as requested by the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu. Iemitsu was returning to his castle from Zojo-ji temple, where his father the second shogun, Hidetada, was buried. Looking up the steep stairway, Iemitsu asked his retinue if anyone would get the flowers for him, and Magaki immediately obliged and sped up the stairs on his horse.

Magaki was barefoot on his ride up those stairs. Fictional or real, credit must be given to Yoshitoshi's artistic intellect. If you use the enlargement tool for this print you will see that Magaki is not wearing any socks (tabi) or sandals. A most unusual representation.

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, is widely recognized as the last great master of the ukiyo-e genre of woodblock printing and painting. He is also regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of Edo period Japan, and the first years of modern Japan following the Meiji Restoration. Before 1873, he had signed most of his prints as "Ikkaisai Yoshitoshi" (??? ??), perhaps in honour of the name his master Kuniyoshi had used, "Ichiyusai".