Gathering Wild Mushrooms

I am way behind again and rather than trying to write about all the stories I missed I limit myself to today's. The picture above is about half of the original shunga, if you would like to see the complete picture, click here. Gathering Wild Mushrooms was one of this year's Lupercalia and one that disappointed me when tried it last spring. Today I tried it again and now it is all I hoped for then. Did it need time or did my perception change?

Wild mushrooms, hay absolute, ginger root, hiba wood, and ginseng.

Perhaps I was disappointed because I didn't smell the ginger, I don't smell it now. But the mushroom note, hay absolute, hiba wood and ginseng make an amazingly different and autumnish scent. Indeed this is more an autumn scent than a spring one. If I go through this decant quickly, I'll try to find someone selling their bottle.

I posted the complete picture on facebook and some people wondered what the text would mean. It may be a description of one of the sexual acts the crown prince had to carry out as an expression of yin yang (source). Or perhaps it is just a naughty poem.