No other artist in Edo-period Japan painted as many roosters as Katsushika Hokusai, but Cock from 1804 stands out for its singular focus and the artist’s own pride in the subject. Hokusai himself once wrote, “I have drawn things since I was six... but nothing pleases me more than the life in a bird’s eye.” This work belongs to a period when Hokusai was experimenting with natural subjects, seeking to capture not only their likeness but their spirit—an approach that would later define his most famous prints. Here, the rooster is caught mid-strut, its chest thrust forward and tail feathers fanned in a riot of inked lines.

The bird’s comb and wattle are rendered with a few bold strokes, while the feathers show Hokusai’s mastery of both line and movement. The rooster’s gaze is alert, almost challenging, embodying the animal’s traditional associations with courage and vigilance in Japanese culture. Unlike the more decorative, stylized birds found in Ito Jakuchu’s works, Hokusai’s cockerel feels alive, its presence filling the space with restless energy.

Every detail—from the scaly claws to the subtle gradations of shading—draws the viewer into a direct encounter with the bird. The precise medium of Cock remains uncertain, though it is likely a painting on paper or silk, as was typical for Hokusai’s animal studies of this era. The work’s early provenance is unclear, but it fits within a larger group of bird-and-flower paintings that Hokusai produced in the early 1800s, before his international fame as a printmaker. Today, Cock is appreciated not only as a study of nature but as a window into Hokusai’s restless creativity and his lifelong fascination with the living world.

Its survival offers a rare glimpse of the artist’s hand outside the familiar format of the woodblock print, marking an important chapter in the story of Japanese painting.