野外で古歌を詠む雅な慣習は、古来より続く公家の遊びの一つであった。土佐光起は、まるで宮廷人が和歌の短冊を枝に結わえ、遊び、立ち去った後に残した、集いの賜物のような物を描いた。

この屏風は、将軍の娘として生まれ、後水尾天皇のもとに入内した東福門院（1607-1678）の注文品という伝承がある。後水尾天皇と東福門院は、宮廷文化の再生を庇護し、推進した人物である。東福門院は、和歌や書をはじめ、さまざまな嗜みを身に着け、女院御所にて、和歌会や、皇族・公家の人々や女官たちを楽しませる催し物を開いたとされる。これらの屏風も、その際の室内飾りの一つだったのかもしれない。

両隻には、土佐光起の名前と宮廷の絵所預の落款が入っている。当初、この屏風の背面には、同じく光起の作と考えられる、竹垣図が描かれていた。その図は、シカゴ美術館に収蔵されるまでに、屏風からはがされ、別仕立ての屏風となっている。

The elegant custom of reciting classical verses during an outing was a long-standing entertainment of Japanese aristocrats. The artist of these screens, Tosa Mitsuoki, has depicted the outcome of one such gathering, after the departure of reveling courtiers who have left behind their verses on strips tied to tree branches.

These screens were commissioned by or presented as a gift by Tofukumon’in (1607–1678), daughter of the shogun and wife of the emperor Gomizunoo (1596–1680). This imperial couple were patrons who sparked a renaissance of courtly aesthetics. Tofukumon’in had received instruction in composing verse, writing calligraphy, and engaging in other refined pastimes. She was known to have sponsored poetry gatherings in the women’s quarters of the palace, events that were attended by ladies-in-waiting and ranking noblemen. These screens may have been used as part of the decorative program for the rooms during such an occasion.

Mitsuoki signed this pair of screens with his name and rank as head of the court painting bureau. On the reverse side of the screens were paintings of bamboo fences, thought to be by the same artist. These were removed and mounted separately at some point before both pairs entered the Art Institute’s collection.

— Exhibition label, Beyond Golden Clouds: Japanese Screens from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Saint Louis Art Museum, June 26–September 27, 2009, Regenstein Hall.

Japanese aristocrats engaged in the elegant custom of recollecting classical poetry while viewing spring and autumn foliage. In these delicate screens, premier court painter Tosa Mitsuoki meditated on the inevitable passage of beauty by depicting the melancholy hours after the departure of reveling courtiers. A cherry tree bursts into bloom on the top screen, while its mate displays the brilliant red and gold foliage of a maple in autumn. Slips of poetry, called tanzaku, waft from the blossoming limbs, the remaining evidence of a human presence. Courtiers (whose names are recorded in a seventeenth-century document) assisted Mitsuoki by inscribing the narrow strips with legible quotations of appropriate seasonal poetry from twelfth- and thirteenth-century anthologies. The screens were either commissioned by or given to Tofukumon’in (1607–1678), a daughter of the Tokugawa shogun who married the emperor Gomizunoo (1596–1680). In an era otherwise marked by increasing control of the feudal shogunate over imperial prerogatives, this royal couple encouraged a renaissance of courtly taste that nostalgically evoked the past glories of early-medieval aristocratic life.

— Entry, Essential Guide, 2009, p. 96.