Syllable GO from the series Collected Seven Variations of the Kana Syllabary (Nanatsu iroha shūi)

With the series of syllables from the Japanese syllabary iroha in seven calligraphic variants, Kunisada returned to the popular series of stations on the Tōkaidō Road and scenes with one hundred poets. The series Seven Variations of Syllabary Characters (Seisho nanatsu iroha) has a similar typographic design with a decorative heading and a loosely-following illustration composed in a square with a direct link to kabuki theatre. The National Gallery Prague houses 32 sheets from the original series of 47 syllables (some in duplicate) selected from two albums. After the great success of this cycle, Kunisada published a continuation of this series of theatre scenes, which were sorted by syllabary characters or by the characters of the iroha poem (Nanatsu iroha shūi). This print depicts a scene called Five Men (Gonin otoko), i.e. five bandits led by Nippon Daemon (centre), who also include Benten Kozō, Akaboshi Jūzaburō, Tadanobu Rihei and Nango Rikimaru. (See Helena Honcoopová, Kunisada, Praha 2005, p. 214)