God of Longevity with Cranes and Turtles

This is a set of three hanging scrolls depicting an old man called ‘Jurojin’ between cranes and tortoises. They are all symbols of long life.
Jurojin is the god of longevity, one of the seven gods of good fortune. His figure is usually depicted as a little man, about 90 cm high, with a long head and a long white beard. He has a staff with a scroll hanging on its end, on which the lifespan of each man is written. A deer usually accompanies him.
In this painting, Jurojin sits reading a scroll. It looks like he has a humorous and meaningful expression.
The painter is Tosa Mitsuyoshi. He was active as the head of the official court atelier during the mid-Edo period. The bright, warm and elegant impressions of this painting feature the style of the Tosa school in the mid-Edo period.
On the upper part of the central picture, Waka poetry composed by Reizei Tamehisa was copied by his son, Tamemura. It is interesting that Tamemura transcribed even his father’s rewritten part.