Drawing 24,  19.2 X 27.3 cm.
A rider and a child arrive at the gate of a house where a woman plays the koto, by a Hokusai pupil.

Published in Oguri gaiden, vol. 10, plate 15B – 16A, in 1814 (?) in the name of "Katsushika Hokusai”.

Changes from drawing to print:

All the changes are improvements made to the details:

-  The canopy on the roof.

-  The hedge to the right of the gate.

-  The text.

Artist's shorthand:

-  Frequent in the parts of the drawing which are nearest completion: the child’s clothes, the scenery in the lower left-hand corner.

-  No shorthand in the other three quarters of the drawing, which has been drawn with a much lighter cursory stroke.

This drawing shows the technical characteristics of a shita-e from the Hokusai studio as well as those of a drawing by one of Hokusai’s pupils:

The child, drawn with a meticulous line, with artist’s shorthand for the next drawing, is almost certainly taken from a previous ichiji shita-e. On the other hand, the rest of the drawing shows all the characteristics of being a preliminary study of the composition. The position of the central margin has already been allowed for and is kept fairly clear.
The meticulous lines for the child are exquisite, those of the koto player are beautiful and spontaneous, while the lines of the tree on the right are singularly lacking in strength, which is unknown in Hokusai’s work. We must assume that the hanshita-e was drawn entirely with the quality of lines seen in the child in order to accept the idea that Hokusai would allow this project to be published in his name.