Torii Kiyomitsu II (Kiyomine)

In this print representing the Year of the Horse, a woman with a shamisen looks indulgingly at a little boy riding a hobbyhorse. The round cartouche in the upper left frames a white horse, a sacred image in Japanese Indigenous belief. Seeing a white horse early in the year was considered auspicious.

Music pervaded joyous occasions, and prints that paired beautiful women and instruments were especially popular. Beyond the theater and entertainment districts, many households were filled with the strains of the shamisen, as shown in this domestic scene.