Hokusai's genre scenes, bijin-ga (beautiful women), and miscellaneous subjects represent the breadth of his career across more than seven decades. The market for non-landscape Hokusai prints has strengthened as collectors seek beyond the most famous designs.
A courtly gathering evokes the famous Lanting (Orchid Pavilion) Assembly of 353 CE, when the Chinese calligrapher Wang Xizhi and forty-one guests composed poems beside a winding stream — a scene that became canonical in East Asian literati culture. Executed as an ebangire [surimono](/glossary/surimono) around 1801–07, Hokusai transposes this idealized moment of elegant leisure into a Japanese courtly register, with figures in aristocratic costume gathered beside flowing water.
1821
Color woodblock print with metallic pigments; surimono shikishiban
1822
Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono
1822
Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono
c. 1832
Color woodblock print; oban
Courtly event modeled on the Lanting Gathering was created by Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎) in c. 1801/07.
Courtly event modeled on the Lanting Gathering depicts figures, rivers & lakes, and calligraphy.
