British Museum

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Originally this image would have appeared on a ‘handscroll for the sleeve’. The small rolled scroll was likely to have been tucked inside somebody’s kimono sleeve in the late 18th century. See the full image in the #ShungaExhibition – tickets now on sale http://ow.ly/oxVvH

Torii Kiyonaga (1752–1815), detail taken from Sode no maki (Handscroll for the Sleeve), c. 1785.