Property from a private collection of tea wares SAKATANI HIRONAGA (1760-1814) AND ŌTA SUKENOBU (1762-1808)Autumn Cuckoo Edo period (1615-1868), circa 1805-1808 A hanging scroll brushed in ink and color on silk depicting a lone hototogisu (lesser cuckoo, Cuculus poliocephalus ) bird flying among the clouds, several types of trees extending from the ground plane below, calligraphy of a poem at the top, signed Hironaga hitsu and sealed Kei'i Apanied by a wood tomobako storage box with an inscription on the lid reading Ga Sakatani Kei'i Hironaga hitsu and San Ōta Settsu no kami Sukenobu hitsu , providing the attribution for the poem's calligraphy 37 1/4 x 12in (94.3 x 30.4cm) Provenance Thomsen Gallery, New York The text of the poem reads Muragumo no/ tanabiku ni te no/ hototogisu/ taedae ni koso/ koe mo kikoyuru (Where the gathering clouds/ spread like blankets/ the cuckoo/ from time to time/ lets his voice be heard) Sakatani Hironaga, following in his father's steps, served as an official painter to the shogunate. His father trained in the Sumiyoshi school, some of whose stylistic tropes were passed on to Hironaga and are visible in this painting. Ōta Sukenobu was seventh head of the Ōta clan and third daimyo (lord) of the Kakegawa feudal domain in Tōtōmi Province (present-day Shizuoka Prefecture). In 1805 he was granted the imperial court rank of Lower Senior Fifth Grade and the title Lord of Settsu. Based on the inscription on the lid of the box, this collaborative work can therefore be dated to the years between his promotion and his death in 1808.