Wigs, a Secret, a sneak preview, and Name this Legend

You didn't think he had white hair naturally, did you? Practically all gentlemen of the time wore wigs and white hair powder. The trend tailed off toward the end of the 1700s and was dealt a deathblow by the tax levied on wig powder in 1795. Seriously! I don't make this stuff up!

Tell you a secret- Allan wears the big black bow because he fancies it makes his nose seem smaller.

Ok, so this week's fun find at work was a New York Times from 1866- yes, the year after Abraham Lincoln died, that century, yes. Still readable. As far as I can tell, it is an original.

Today I dealt with someone's collection of sports cards- nothing of value, though I wasted several hours on it. What else- oh, there was a plate! A hand-painted plate from Japan with an interesting scene on it. Can anyone satisfy my curiosity by telling me what legend it is from? There are four middle-aged men surrounding a young man or woman (hard to tell). The men could be samurai or they could as easily be bandits, since they have an unfriendly greedy look on their faces. They also have golden halos round their heads, like saints. Is that a Buddhist thing? The youth is well-dressed and the halo surrounds (her?) entire body. Here is a different plate depicting a similar scene. What is it about? Help me out here.

 

(Update: They can't be the 7 Gods of Good Fortune because there aren't 7 of them. It's possible they are the Four Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu or the Four Heavenly Kings. Neither theory tells me who the 5th figure on the plate is.)

 

And finally, a sneak peek at Chapter 6: