The seal impressed on this painting was used by Hokusai during the early Bunka period (1804-17). An inscription by the artist on a painting of carp and turtles (Saitama Prefectural Museum) indicates that he transferred this seal to his pupil Hokumei in 1813. Paintings of this variety depicting simple compositions of natural subjects were usually mounted in album-format, and would have been suitable as painting models for aspiring artists. Surviving works of similar artistic style and format (bearing the identical signature and seal) include a vertical ink painting of bamboo stalks (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris) and a horizontal composition in ink and light colors of a grapevine (Nagata Seiji, Hokusai Museum [Shueisha, 1990], pl. 95).