Young Samurai on Horseback Crossing a Bridge

The young man on the horse carries a pair of swords so we can identify him as a scion of a samurai family. Yet, because of his gentle facial features and effeminate robes, he can also be identified as a wakashu, or elegantly dressed “male youth.” Though the print is unsigned, it has been traditionally attributed to Koryūsai’s early period, when he was still under the influence of Suzuki Harunobu’s style of representing young men and women. Former commentators identified this as a mitate-e (parody picture) of the scene from the Noh play Shakkyō (Stone Bridge), where a young box mounted on a Chinese lion (shishi) appears with an axe or sword, but such an interpretation may be reading too much into the image.