Signed and sealed at lower right Hyakuhō 百豊. Comes with a fitted paulownia-wood storage box.

Dramatically foreshortened to create a striking sense of depth, two exquisitely groomed and spirited pack horses confront the viewer from above and behind a wooden goods cart. Equipped with full Western tack, they are rendered in lustrous reds and browns that contrast beautifully with the delicate gray-green willow in the background. Reflecting the influence of his celebrated teacher Takeuchi Seihō, this accomplished animal painting is a rare and important early work in Hirota Hyakuhō's career.

Born in Yamanaka, Enuma District (present-day Kaga City), Ishikawa Prefecture, Hyakuhō (whose name also appears in modern publications as Hyappou) was adopted into the Hirota family at the age of three. After graduating from Ishikawa School, now part of Kanazawa University, he initially pursued a career in education but resigned in 1911 to devote himself to painting. Following his move to Kyoto, he studied Nihonga under Kishinami Ryōkei before becoming an uchideshi (live-in pupil) of Takeuchi Seihō, the dominant figure in Kyoto painting during the early twentieth century. Seihō was particularly renowned for his depictions of animals, including lions studied from life in European zoos, where he spent hours sketching and observing their movements. The year 1911 marked a decisive breakthrough for Hyakuhō. His two-panel screen Umaya (The Stable) was accepted to the Fifth Bunten National Art Exhibition, received a Minister of Education Commendation, and was subsequently acquired by the Imperial Household Agency. The work established his reputation at a critical moment in his career. Hyakuhō appears to have returned only rarely, if at all, to equine subjects later in life. This scroll therefore likely dates from around 1911 or the years immediately following. The horses are painted in a manner closely related to those in The Stable, yet with a freedom and vitality that suggest a less formal and more successful treatment of the theme. Hyakuhō continued to exhibit at the Bunten through 1916. Following the reorganization of the official exhibition system, however, he joined many like-minded artists in withdrawing from what they regarded as an increasingly bureaucratic institution and became a founding member of the Nihon Jiyū Gadan (Japan Free Art Association). A study trip to Europe in 1922 further strengthened his interest in expanding the expressive possibilities of Nihonga while remaining faithful to its materials and techniques. Throughout his career he maintained close ties to the artistic circles of his native Ishikawa Prefecture, culminating in 1936 with the celebrated dragon painting he executed on the ceiling of Reitaku Hall in Kanazawa's famed Kenrokuen Garden.

A retrospective exhibition of Hirota Hyakuhō’s work, subtitled Dentō o koete (Transcending Tradition), was presented at the Kaga City Art Museum in the summer of 2025 to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the artist’s death. Although no accompanying catalogue was published, an informal online record conveys the breadth of his practice. Predominantly drawn from local collections, the exhibition included naturalistic animal studies; a two-panel folding screen depicting young peasant women at work—a favored subject in painting of the 1920s and 1930s; a meticulously brushed portrait of a standing maiko (young female entertainer); and a scroll of peacocks recalling the work of fellow Kanazawa native Ishizaki Kōyō, whose Vying Peacocks screens (circa 1929, now in the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art) caused a sensation when shown at Thomsen Gallery in 1913.