Six Tamagawa Rivers

The rivers in the painting are located in six different provinces and all of them are called “Tama-gawa”. They were often quoted in Japanese Waka poetry in the Heian period (8th-10th centuries), and were also a popular theme of the paintings in the Edo period (17th-19th centuries).
Kanō Tanshin-morimasa (1805-1853) was the 8th head of the Kajibashi branch of the Kanō school. The signature reads ‘Hōgen’ (the second highest rank in the hierarchy of painters), which suggests that it was created at the later part of his life after he achieved this rank in 1844.