The itinerant painter Soga Shōhaku was well known for his sensitive brushwork, his edgy stylings, and his personal eccentricity. This painting reflects his signature dynamic of delicacy and daring in the confident abstract treatment of the pine knots, the clawlike waves at lower left, the tonal quality of the hawks' feathers, and the dainty blossoms and dancing twigs. Shōhaku anchored the composition with the dominance of the birds of prey and his assertive handling of the pine tree. The pronounced downward diagonals of the branches and of one outstretched wing are counterbalanced by energetic curves and swirls. The patterning of the hawks' feathers produces an optical effect of their layered tips protruding into space. Grayish underlying tones at the edges read as shading, and the feathers emit a metallic sheen.

While artists have always admired and depicted the speed, vision, and strength of hawks, falcons, eagles, and other raptors, these powerful creatures were especially popular among the samurai for their ferocity, regal quality, and directness of action. Whether Shōhaku chose this pair of hawks for their symbolic significance or for purely aesthetic considerations, his portrayal of their alert demeanor, penetrating gaze, and sharp beaks and talons is a virtuoso combination of truthfulness and deceptively free-form technique.

People thought [him] mad. His paintings were multiform and free. [At times] he applied ink to a straw brush and literally swabbed about. [But] when it came to painting meticulous works, others could not equal him.
-Art historian Okada Chōken, 1759-1824