Hokuba: Brush Drawing of Beauty Delighted by her Cat

Artist: Teisai Hokuba (1771-1844)
Title: Brush Drawing of Beauty Delighted by her Cat  Date: Ca. 1840s

A woman is seated next to a brazier that supports a teapot. She leans forward towards her cat who is curled up on the floor, covering her sleeve and smiling with amused delight. The texts read: “Gejo inari ninkann o shite shô ichii”, which seems to refer to the woman, Inari shrine and granting official rank. Perhaps the cat is being ranked, in a tongue in cheek manner?

Teisai Hokuba was a talented designer of surimono and a student of Katushika Hokusai. This comes from an album of Hokuba drawings and poems that was sold at Sotheby’s London in February, 1963. Provenance: From the personal collection of Herbert Egenolf. LACMA has 13 drawings from this same album by Hokuba in its collection.

Dimensions: 27.2 x 19.4 cm

Condition: Very good condition overall; binding holes along right margin.

SKU: DRW415