A summer motif of red and white poppies arrayed boldly across the gold-leafed surface of the screen, a lattice fence the only indication of setting, is a decorative formula that was developed during the seventeenth century and taken up by various schools throughout the Edo period. An unusual feature of this painting is the pattern of family crests that decorates the fence. The screen bears an inscription by Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716) attributing the work to the court painter Tosa Mitsumochi, who died a century before the celebrated Rinpa artist was born. The attribution, however, is speculative, and based on stylistic considerations, the work probably dates to the early seventeenth century. Nevertheless, the work reveals the kind of court paintings that Kōrin, famous for formalized depictions of natural themes, had direct access to and would have studied.
