File:Mashiba Hisayoshi.jpg

English: Hideyoshi(豊臣秀吉) taking Ishida Mitsunari(石田三成)'s hand; Mistunari wearing his hair in page-boy topknot.

Mashiba Hisayoshi(真柴久吉) was the name used by kabuki theatrical convention for the character Hashiba Hideyoshi(豊臣秀吉), that is, the military leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–98). ‘Hisayoshi’ is shown fondling the hand of a pageboy who, from the seven-star crest on his sleeve, must be his favourite Ishida Mitsunari (石田三成, 1560–1600). The image here clearly implies that the two are in a "sexual relationship". However, there is no passage in the illustrated biography Ehon Taiko- ki (Picture Book: Annals of the Regent [Hideyoshi]) of 1797–1802 that mentions sexual relations between Hideyoshi and Mitsunari; rather, this suggestion must have come from Ishida gunki (War Chronicle of Ishida Mitsunari) of 1698 (author unidentified). In Gaidan bunbun shu-yo- of 1860 by Ishizuka Ho-kaishi (1799–1861), it is recorded that one of the images that brought about Utamaro’s punishment at the time of the banning of Ehon Taiko- ki in the fifth month, 1804, showed ‘The Regent [Hideyoshi] taking the hand of Ishida, with his hair dressed in pageboy style, when Ishida had an audience before him’, which clearly corresponds to the present print. The identity of the samurai who carries Hideyoshi’s sword over his shoulder and sticks out his tongue at the serving woman is unknown. Maybe he stands as a symbol of the antagonism felt towards Mitsunari among Hideyoshi’s vassal generals.