Picture scroll of Shunga

This picture scroll of Shunga has been handed down in the Tachibana family, the former lord of Yanagawa Domain. It is unknown when it came to the family and who had owned it before. This painting on the silk was painted delicately with high quality pigment that gives a warm and gentle impressions with dignity. It would be a first class collection that fits appropriately to feudal lords. In the fifth picture of the Shunga scroll, we can find a landscape painting depicted on the folding screen in the painted room. In that landscape painting, we can find a sign and a seal. The sign says "by Hokkyo Takugen", which is believed that it was painted by Katsuyama Takugen（1747〜1824）, a painter of the Kano School, who was active in Kyoto from the middle to late Edo period. The sign also suggests that this picture was created when he was the third highest rank called Hokkyo. He was given the rank of Hokkyo in 1775.