Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年, 1839–1892), Eight Honorific Lines: Tokiwa Gozen (贈名八所 Zōmei Hassho), woodblock print (nishiki-e), ōban format, published by Daikokuya Kiheimon (大黒屋喜右衛門). This is a small but carefully conceived set from Meiji 11 (1878) in which Yoshitoshi selected eight historical or legendary women whose names—zōmei 贈名—had come to embody moral or exemplary qualities. The series title refers to women whose reputations were treated almost as formalised epithets, recalling the old Chinese practice of ennobling worthies through exemplary sobriquets.
