Outing of a Young Man (Shönenkö)

Catalog note / 解説

Hokusai visualizes the poem ""Outing of a Young Man"" (""Shönekö"") by Gui Guopu of the Tang dynasty. This young dandy, dressed in leather clothing, is seated on a golden saddle upon a white horse. Urging his horse onward with a whip beautifully inlaid with pieces of coral, he had hurried to Zhantai, a pleasure quarter in Jangan (Changan). On his return, he realizes that he has left his whip behind, and his horse refuses to run. Proud and self-conscious, the young man does not wish to go back, afraid that people might think that was attached to the woman he had met. So he continues riding with a whip improvised from a willow branch. The print conveys the plesant spring day with newly leafed…