Tetsukuri no Tamagawa on the Musashino Plain

Tetsukuri no Tamagawa on the Musashino Plain

Utagawa Toyokuni I

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This triptych has an eye-catching composition featuring beautiful women. Two figures in dark kimonos with kasuri patterns are particularly striking. The subject matter of Six Jewel Rivers, known as Mu-Tamagawa, was inspired by classical waka poems and became popular in the pictorial tradition during the Edo period. The depiction of one of the Six Jewel Rivers, Tetsukuri no Tamagawa in Chōfu, west of Tokyo, usually includes the beating, rinsing, and drying of clothes. In Toyokuni's print, six women are arranged in the foreground with a sense of lateral rhythmic movement.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tetsukuri no Tamagawa on the Musashino PlainTetsukuri no Tamagawa on the Musashino PlainTetsukuri no Tamagawa on the Musashino PlainTetsukuri no Tamagawa on the Musashino PlainTetsukuri no Tamagawa on the Musashino Plain

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.