Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) was a Japanese artist active primarily in Edo (modern Tokyo). He trained in the Katsukawa school, a leading lineage of ukiyo-e print designers, before establishing an independent practice and working under numerous art names throughout his career. Hokusai produced works for both commercial publication and private commission, including surimono designed for private distribution.

This surimono was commissioned for the 1822 Year of the Horse by the Yomo-gawa poetry group and features poems by two of its members, Tsuru no Hinako and Yomo no Utagaki Magao. It belongs to a series titled A Selection of Horses (Uma-zukushi), which comprised at least thirty designs. Following a similar format, each print in the series combines kyōka (humorous poetry) by group members with imagery alluding to the theme of the horse.

In this design, Hokusai employs visual wordplay rather than direct representation. The motif of the “horse” is evoked through a pair of dried seahorses (kaiba), shown resting in an open gold-lacquer folder. Behind them appears an unwrapped black-lacquer box containing a pair of dried jewel beetles (tamamushi). Such items were associated with auspicious wedding practices. Dried seahorses, preserved as male–female pairs, were used as protective amulets during childbirth, while jewel beetles were believed to possess aphrodisiac properties and were sometimes incorporated into bridal cosmetics.

Surimono were made to be exchanged as gifts (typically for the New Year) and circulated among members of literary and artistic circles. Because they were privately commissioned, impressions were limited, typically numbering between approximately fifty and two hundred. The genre is distinguished by the use of costly materials and printing techniques, including bokashi (gradation), blind embossing, and the application of metallic pigments and mica.

The poems that appear on this print can be read as follows:

Poem by Tsuru no Hinako: ‘The beetles glitter and raise their feelers - Spring has come - and the seahorses prance like the first flowers on the waves’

Poem by Yomo no Utagaki Magao: ‘Pray for love and respect with ritual writings of the heavenly brush, but for earthly good fortune, rely on the jewel bug and seahorse’