This series was published in 1866 and 1867.

See Eimei Nijuhasshuku for further details.

The Kinsei jinbutsu shi consists of a series of twenty nishikie that Yoshitoshi drew as supplements for the daily Yamato shinbun. The supplements were published once a month, and in addition to their number in the series, they bore the issue number and date of the paper they were distributed with. See below for all a list of all the prints in the series, with their numbers, dates, and titles.

The Kinsei jinbutsu shi prints are not news nishikie. They differ in a number of ways from the Tonichi and Hochi nishikie and their Osaka counterparts. They were planned from the start as newspaper supplements and were published regularly. They did not focus on news events but on a broad spectrum of influential early Meiji male and female news makers, most deceased, a few still living. And while news nishikie were sold like other woodblock prints and books, the supplements were distributed to readers who subscribed to the paper by the month. (Tsuchiya 1995:24)

The Kinsei jinbutsu shi supplements also differ from news nishikie in that, whereas news nishikie featured on-scene illustrations and written accounts of an incident that had been reported in the news, the supplements presented graphic portraits and narrative profiles of famous people.

The lives of a some of the people chosen for the series were fraught with conflict and a few ended in violence. Some supplements show or hint at the trauma. Most, though, capture tragic heroes in moments of quietude.

Who chose the personalities to feature in the series? Jono? Nishida? Or Yoshitoshi himself?

The series reflects a certain nostalgia for recent times, barely a decade or two earlier, when Japan was not as stable as it had become by the late 1880s. As both witnesses and participants, Jono and Yoshitoshi were undoubtedly keen observers of the feats and failures of the men and women who figured in the uncertainties and changes.

As an analogy, imagine a writer like Ishihara Shintaro founding a newspaper, and commissioning a drawer like Yokoo Tadanori to produce a series of caricatures of historical figures both men respected for their thoughts and actions. An odd couple, you might say, but apart from that, who would they choose? Nogi Maresuke and Mishima Yukio? Matsui Sumako and Abe Sada? How would Yoshitoshi have depicted such personalities in a latter-day version of Kinsei jinbutsu shi?

For a good introduction to seven of the Kinsei jinbutsu shi prints, see Cathrine E. Lowther's Yoshitoshi Tsukioka: The Lives of Modern People, 1887-1988 -- though the series began from 1886.