Young Samurai on Horseback and Women at a Window

Koryūsai’s composition was certainly inspired by an earlier print of ca. 1743–7 by Okumura Masanobu (1686–1764) with a similar scene of a young samurai on horseback and two women at a window (see MFA, Boston, 11.133341). Masanobu’s print design is accompanied by a haikai poem that suggests amorous intentions, though the man and women do not directly exchange glances:

Koi-kaze ni
chiru ya sakura no
monomi mado

Stirred by the winds of love,
cherry blossom scatter
by the viewing window

(Trans. John T. Carpenter)

In Koryūsai’s rendition of the theme, the young man looks back to return the gazes of the two women. The print is signed “Haruhiro,” 春廣an early art name used by Koryūsai, incorporating the character for “haru” 春, which is a reminder of the artist’s early indebtedness to Suzuki Harunobu (1725–1770. Koryūsai, a samurai retained by the lord of Tsuchiya, moved to Edo to become an ukiyo-e artist following the death of his lord. Although he is reputed to have been a student of Nishimura Shigenaga (ca. 1697-–1756), stylistically, there is a closer stylistic connection to Harunobu. Around 1769 (at the age of 35) he began to produce his first prints which bore the signature Haruhiro (only eight designs are known), implying a professional relationship between the two artists or perhaps a marketing tactic by the publisher to connect the reputation of a young artist to that of a more famous master. Koryūsai’s early work, such as the example here, captures the same innocence with subtle eroticism as found in the work of Harunobu.