Young man

Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760-1849) · ca. 1795-1798

At first glance, the figure here appears to be a woman, but the hairstyle confirms that this is a handsome young man, known during the Edo period as a wakashu. The surcoat (haori) and bamboo hat (kasa) suggest he is on an outing about town. The composition and the depiction of the figure in full profile, otherwise unusual in Japanese painting, are typical of Hokusai's work during his Sori period. An illustration in the catalogue of the Hokusai exhibition organized in Tokyo in 1900 by American scholar Ernest Fenollosa indicates that to the right of the present paper was once an additional area that contained an inscription by a certain Kitoku. Presumably this section was removed during a later remounting.