Hikone screen

The 94-×-274.8-centimetre (37.0 × 108.2 in) byōbu screen[1] depicts a scene in which eleven male and female figures amuse themselves.

On the left, a blind man and some women play shamisens before a four-panel byōbu screen with a landscape painted on it.

[2] The manner of brushstrokes indicate the anonymous painting is in the style of the Kyō Kanō [ja] school.

It is thought most likely the commission came from someone of the upper ranks of society, from the kuge aristocracy, a buke samurai house, or a machishū [ja] business leader.

[9] The screen came into the collection of the Ii clan of the city of Hikone—its modern namesake—in what is now Shiga Prefecture no earlier than the late Edo period (1853–67).

[10] Tea master Takahashi Yoshio [ja] (1861–1937) recorded a Noh event at the Ii residence on 30 June 1912 at which Ii Naotada [ja] (1881–1947, fifteenth head of the family) had numerous art objects on display, including the Hikone screen; an unnamed member of the family told him "the famous ukiyo Matabei's Hikone screen" had first been obtained by Ii Naosuke (1815–60, thirteenth head of the family), who interested himself in curios and objets d'art.