Untitled

Katsushika Hokusai

1822 · Woodblock print (surimono); ink and color on paper · Asian Art

This surimono is one of thirty-three prints in a set that was commissioned for the year of the horse in 1822. However, the images are not of horses but are conjured up from words associated with the animal. The print illustrates a fan and a tobacco pouch above a tissue case. The tobacco pouch is made of deerskin dyed with a pattern of horses and dandelions in a technique known as shōbūkawa. Hokusai's intentionally paradoxical signature reads Fusenkyo Iitsu hitsu ("painted by Iitsu in his Nonpainting Studio").

Artist

Katsushika Hokusai

Date

1822

Medium

Woodblock print (surimono); ink and color on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1922