Naruto’s Legendary Hokages Meet on an Ichiban Kuji Shikishi

Naruto Shippuden Ichiban Kuji Shikishi Art Board

What Is a Shikishi, and How Does Ichiban Kuji Work?

Shikishi — thick, slightly rigid art boards rooted in Japanese calligraphy and poetry culture — have long served as surfaces for painted inscriptions, signatures, and commemorative artwork. In the anime and manga world, they evolved into a popular printed collectible format: vivid character illustrations on a compact, display-ready board designed to be framed. This particular shikishi was produced by Bandai Spirits as a prize item in their Ichiban Kuji lottery series, with “BANDAI SPIRITS MADE IN JAPAN” printed on the reverse.

Ichiban Kuji is a lottery-style prize system run by Bandai Spirits, the collectibles-focused subsidiary spun off from Bandai in 2018. Unlike gacha capsule toys or food-toy packs, Ichiban Kuji includes no food — participants pay a set price per draw at convenience stores and toy retailers across Japan, primarily Lawson, and receive a prize from a tiered lineup that typically runs from an A-prize figure down to a last-one special. Once a lottery run ends, prizes are not restocked, so secondary markets become the only route to obtaining them. Shikishi boards appear regularly in Ichiban Kuji lineups alongside figures and pin badges, and their format is specifically suited to framing and display.

The NARUTO Franchise and the NARUTOP99 Campaign

Created by Masashi Kishimoto and serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1999 to 2014, NARUTO ran for more than 700 chapters across 72 collected volumes. Its sequel anime, Naruto Shippuden, aired on TV Tokyo from 2007 to 2017 across more than 500 episodes, produced by Studio Pierrot. Shueisha has reported worldwide manga sales exceeding 250 million copies, placing the series alongside Dragon Ball and One Piece as one of the defining works of the Jump era.

The NARUTOP99 logo visible on this board ties it to a specific campaign: a worldwide character popularity vote conducted by Shueisha and Studio Pierrot around 2022 to 2023, marking the series’ 20th-to-25th anniversary. Fans across the globe submitted votes, and the top 99 characters were officially ranked and announced. Bandai Spirits produced a tie-in Ichiban Kuji series connected to that campaign, and this shikishi is understood to be part of that release. The exact prize grade or set designation indicated by “#1” in the listing cannot be confirmed from currently available information alone.

The Characters on the Board

The illustration assembles several of the most significant figures in the NARUTO universe. Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, is the father of protagonist Naruto Uzumaki and known in-story as the fastest ninja alive — a character who ranked near the top of the series’ official popularity polls throughout its run. Jiraiya, one of the legendary Sannin, served as both Minato’s teacher and Naruto’s own mentor; Kishimoto has described Jiraiya as among the characters he felt most personally invested in. Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage and founder of Konohagakure, is regarded within the story as a god among ninja for his rare Wood Release bloodline ability. His younger brother Tobirama, the Second Hokage, is established as a master of Water Release techniques. Shikamaru Nara, from Naruto’s own generation, is widely celebrated as the series’ most gifted strategist. Naruto himself appears partially in the composition.

Bringing together Hokage from multiple eras alongside other legendary characters reflects the spirit of NARUTOP99 as a franchise-wide retrospective. For fans who followed the series from its early chapters through Shippuden’s conclusion, a single illustration that places these figures together carries a particular weight tied to the full arc of that story.