A young man leads a packhorse laden with several chests of gold coins under two pine trees. The chests of gold coins are auspicious symbols of wealth and the presence of a plum branch and a shimenawa rope on the horse's belly indicate that this is also a New Year's print.

Like the previous two surimono also by Hokusai also issued the same year of the horse (1798), this print bears the inscription at the far left "First Spring of the year of the Horse" (牛のはつ春), indicating these three surimono could be part of a series or set distributed by the same kyoka group from Asakusa. All three surimono also feature kyoka poems by Asakusa-an (Asakusa no Ichihito (1755-1821).

Dr. Gerhard Pulverer is a German medical researcher who worked at the University of Cologne. He bought his first Japanese woodblock prints in Kyoto in the 1970s while visiting Japan for a scientific conference. For more than thirty years, he and his wife Rosemarie travelled the world assembling a large collection woodblock prints and Japanese illustrated books (ehon). In forming the collection, he drew on the advice of highly regarded experts including Jack Hillier, C.H. Mitchell, Tim Clark and Ellis Tinios.

In 2007 the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC purchased the illustrated book collection. It is today regarded as one of the most outstanding and comprehensive collections of Japanese illustrated books outside Japan.

For an insightful interview with the collector by Ellis Tinios (on behalf of the Smithsonian National Museum of Art), go to: https://pulverer.si.edu/node/186