This image depicts Ōkubo Hikozaemon (1560-1639) carrying the future shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu from a battle field, disguised in the print by clouds of smoke and explosive fire. Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) was the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from about 1600 after the battle of Sekigahara until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ōkubo Hikozaemon was a direct vassal to Ieyasu, from the fifth generation of the Ōkubo family to serve the Tokugawa clan, and became an advisor to the first three Tokugawa shoguns.

The Sengoku Period (circa 1467-1568), usually translated as the Warring States Period, was a prolonged era of civil war between numerous feudal domains. Lack of effective central leadership led domain lords to vie for larger areas of influence, and to create territories that were independent of outside rule. This situation remained until Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), worked together to effect a unification of the country under central rule. Characterized by ruthless ambitions and contested territories, the legends of the Sengoku Period maintained the themes of strength, honor, bravery, and loyalty established in the classical period and Genpei War (1180-1185). The prints here depict an era of grotesque violence and ingenious military tactics; warlords slaughtered their rivals families, and collected their enemies heads. Brilliant military strategies unfolded as smaller infantries toppled much larger armies using traps, diversions, and recently imported firearms. It was a time of gekokujō, , which can be translated as the low overcoming the high, and the ultimate victor of the Sengoku Period, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was a man born to humble beginnings with no samurai lineage. These prints celebrate men like Hideyoshi, whose aggression and strategic genius brought them great status.