Nobleman Boating

A print depicting a nobleman boating — a scene of aristocratic water-borne leisure that evokes the Heian courtly tradition of pleasure boating on lakes and rivers, where poetry composition and music-making accompanied the visual enjoyment of seasonal scenery. The nobleman's boat carried associations with the aesthetic culture of the imperial court at its most refined: the specific kind of decorated pleasure vessel, the costume appropriate to such occasions, and the social rituals of formal leisure all would be rendered with Chikanobu's characteristic historical precision.