{"id":29865,"date":"2026-03-23T16:30:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T16:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=29865"},"modified":"2026-03-23T14:57:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T14:57:06","slug":"hokusais-horses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2026\/03\/23\/hokusais-horses\/","title":{"rendered":"Hokusai’s Horses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hokusai01.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Shogi Chess Board.<\/em><\/p>\n

I ought to have posted this several weeks ago for the advent of the Year of the Horse. Umazukushi<\/em> is a series of wood-block prints by Katsushika Hokusai created to celebrate another Year of the Horse, 1822. Umazukushi<\/em> (also Uma-zukushi<\/em>) is usually translated as “A Selection of Horses”, and this is what Hokusai gives us, albeit in a cryptic manner since most of the prints are still-life views of household objects. Each print features a short poem\u2014the series was commissioned by a group of poets\u2014while each picture contains a reference to horses. The allusions aren’t always easy to decipher for the non-Japanese, especially when looking back over two centuries. The Japanese robin, for example, is known as the “horse bird” as a result of its singing voice which was regarded as sounding like the neighing of a horse. I’m still not sure about some of the other prints. A complete description of the references would be useful but my searches so far have failed to turn up anything.<\/p>\n

\"hokusai02.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Inkstone in a Horseshoe Shape.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai03.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Musical Instruments and Horse’s Tail.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai04.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Toy Horse Fan and Incense Burner.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai05.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Saddle Wringer, Smoking Outfit and Plum Branch.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"hokusai26.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Prawn and Other Offerings.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai06.jpg\"<\/p>\n

A Pipe Case with a Tobacco Pouch.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai07.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Bamboo Clothes Horse.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai08.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Kaiba and Sea Horses.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai09.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Horse Talisman.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai10.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The Three-Stringed Colt.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai11.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Writing Kit, Scissor and Clothes.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai12.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Running Horse.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai13.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Horse Iris Pattern.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai14.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Hobby Horse.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai15.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Hobby Horse 2.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai16.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Horse Shells.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai17.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Votive Pictures.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai18.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Horse Burdock.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai19.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Kutsuwa District.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai20.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Japanese Robin.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai21.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Leading a Horse Money.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai22.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Horse Clogs.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai23.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The First Horse Day.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hokusai25.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Agate.<\/em><\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji<\/a>
\n\u2022 Okinami letterforms<\/a>
\n\u2022 Hokusai record covers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shogi Chess Board. I ought to have posted this several weeks ago for the advent of the Year of the Horse. Umazukushi is a series of wood-block prints by Katsushika Hokusai created to celebrate another Year of the Horse, 1822. Umazukushi (also Uma-zukushi) is usually translated as “A Selection of Horses”, and this is what … Continue reading “Hokusai’s Horses”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"New blog post: Hokusai's Horses","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[7702],"class_list":["post-29865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","tag-katsushika-hokusai"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-7LH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}