There is an story that says that when Yoshitoshi was binding up his disciple as a model for his painting, an acquaintance of Yoshitoshi was startled at the sight and asked Yoshitoshi to forgive the disciple, and then, Yoshitoshi was humorous enough to answer the acquaintance with a joke 'I'm punishing my bad disciple by binding him up.'
絵のモデルとして弟子を縛り付けているのを見た知人が驚いて、助けてやってくれと頼むと、「こいつは悪いことをしたので縛り付けている」と悪乗りをして言い返すという逸話があり、ユーモラスな人でもあったようだ。