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Attached is the first sketch in Ito Chuta's"Ashura-cho" titled Outbreak of War Between Austria and Serbia [塞墺開戰) with commentary by Hirata Tōsuke [1849-1925, statesman]. A transcription of Hirata's commentary would be much appreciated.

龍驤虎搏
Ryū jō ko haku -　Dragon and tiger fight fiercely
(Refers to a fierce battle between two strong people)
雌雄果孰
Shiyū ka shuku
Which is the male and female fruit ?
(What is the outcome ?)

Signature and seal,
西涯　-　Seigai　（Hirata Tōsuke's original given name was Seigai)

With regards,
I.Nagy

It's been suggested to me that the transcription reads
龍驤虎掷
雌雄爭鋒
西涯

But I have doubts about certain characters. Would appreciate confirmation or corrections.

The cursive forms of characters in this inscription are regular and easy to read.
1,
龍驤虎搏
The two characters 掷 (擲）and 搏　have similar meanings, but they are different characters.　The abbreviated 掷 form is the product of the Chinese writing reform of the 1950s. I think the reading was made by a modern Chinese AI backed reading program.

Here are the cursive forms of the two characters in question.

擲　草書体　　Paste and google

搏　草書体　　Paste and google

Furthermore,there is the Japanese language explanation of the 龍驤虎搏 four character idiom.
https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E7%AB%9C%E6%94%98%E8%99%8E%E6%90%8F/

Note,
驤 and　攘　are interchangeable chracters

2,

雌雄果孰

果 草書体 Paste and google
孰 草書体 Paste and google

for comparison,
　
爭　草書体　Paste and google
鋒　草書体 Paste and google

The cursive forms are clear.
The grammatical explanation is given below in Japanese.

「果孰」は、漢文の文法で「孰」が疑問詞として使われる場合、通常「たれか」または「誰が」と読みます。
「果」は、「果敢な」のように「果」が付く場合は「はたして」と読むことが多いですが、「果」と「孰」がセットで使われる場合は、主に「たれか」や「誰が」という意味になります。

With regards,
I.Nagy

Dear Nagy-san,
Thanks for your detailed further response. I've been using Chat GPT4o as well as Chat GPT4.5 for translation of text transcribed with the use of Google Lens. Recently I've also been asking Chat to analyze actual images of text and provide a transcription along with providing an indication of its likely accuracy. I double check all factual information Chat provides, particularly any proper nouns, dates, etc. I've also been playing around with KuroNet Kuzushiji Recognition which sounded promising, but doesn't seem to be happy with the images of the Ashura-cho commentary script I've been giving it, returning a pretty high percentage of inaccuracies, perhaps because it was designed to transcribe "cursive script from Edo to Meiji periods."

Dear Irwin,
Thank you for your reply, I'm always learning something new about the latest advances in technology.
Summa summarum,if such gadgets had existed 50 years ago, I would never have learned to read cursive writing.
Regards,
I.Nagy

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