Chofu Jewel River, a Famous Place in Musashi Province

The Six Jewel Rivers (Mu Tamagawa) were among the geographic locations (utamakura) commonly cited in early waka poetry. One of the rivers was the Chōfu (previously pronounced Tazukuri) Tamagawa, which flows through present-day Tokyo. At the top of this print is a portrait of the master poet Fukiwara Teika (Sadaie, 1162–1241) and an inscription reading “The Jewel River of Chōfu, one of the famous locales in Musashi Province.” On the right side of the print is inscribed one of Teika’s poems about this spot, from the anthology Shūi gūsō.
Tazukuri ya
sarasu kakine no
asa tsuyu wo
tsuranuki tomenu
Tamagawa no sato

The hand-woven hemp
cloth drying on the hedge holds
morning dew like gems
strung on threads: this truly is
the Jewel River Village!
The bleached cloth referred to is sarashi—handmade plain-weave cloth of fine hemp or ramie, which was cleaned in the cold, flowing water of the river and stretched to dry and whiten in the sun.
The scene chosen by Harunobu to depict this classical imagery appears on the surface to be an innocent scene of a mother—perhaps one of the washerwomen—holding a length of cloth as she looks down at the child at her feet, dressed only in a bib. In fact, the print hints at an underlying eroticism: the woman’s front-tied obi (suggesting she may be a courtesan), her exposed breasts and legs — in danger of further exposure from the child’s pulling — and even the “octopus leg” tie-dyed pattern of the cloth she holds evoke sexual associations.