Flowering Plants of Summer and Autumn

Sakai Hoitsu added this work later on the back of Ogata Korin's "Wind God and Thunder God" screens. It was commissioned by Hitotsubashi Harusada, the head of the Hitotsubashi family and father of the eleventh shogun, Tokugawa Ienari. For conservation, the front and back were separated in 1974, and they are now separate screens. It is color on paper with a silver ground, and each screen measures 167.0 cm high by 184.0 cm wide. It is designated an Important Cultural Property.

On a silver ground reminiscent of moonlight, summer and autumn plants are rendered in fresh colors. On the right screen, summer plants such as lilies and bindweed droop with their leaf tips toward the ground, and rainwater collected on the ground flows away in the background, expressing a heavy evening shower without painting raindrops. On the left screen, autumn plants such as kudzu, thoroughwort, pampas grass, and wild grape bend widely in the wind, and the wild grape swirling in the air and the color of the overturned leaves convey the strength of the wind.

The summer plants were originally on the back of the Thunder God screen and the autumn plants on the back of the Wind God screen, so the summer plants are beaten by the rain brought by the Thunder God and the autumn plants blown by the wind raised by the Wind God. There are also contrasts such as gold and silver, and heaven and earth, which suggest that Hoitsu, who admired Korin, sought to respond to Korin's work.