Women Cutting Branches of Bush Clover; The Noji Tama River in Omi Province, from an untitled series of the Six Tama Rivers

Women Cutting Branches of Bush Clover; The Noji Tama River in Omi Province, dated to around 1787 and held by the Cleveland Museum of Art, belongs to one of Kubo Shunman's most celebrated projects, an untitled series treating the classical theme of the Six Tama Rivers (Mu Tamagawa). The Six Tama Rivers were a well-established poetic topos drawn from waka tradition, with each river associated with a specific province, season, and lyrical motif, and Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) designers frequently revisited the set as a way to align their work with classical literary precedent. The Noji Tama River in Omi Province carried associations with autumnal bush clover (hagi), and Shunman's design uses that link to organize figures, plants, and setting into a coherent meditation on seasonal poetry. The Cleveland Museum's record provides authoritative grounding for the attribution and series identification, allowing the print to be studied alongside the other sheets that compose Shunman's Mu Tamagawa set. Stylistically, the work shows the slender, refined figural type that Shunman developed early in his career and the calm, almost recessive coloration he often preferred to the high-key palettes of his contemporaries. Within his broader output, the series is a touchstone for understanding how he engaged with classical literature through ukiyo-e's medium, while also demonstrating the influence of his close association with poets such as Ota Nanpo. For viewers interested in how Edo ukiyo-e absorbed and visualized waka traditions, this sheet stands among the more substantial examples produced in the late eighteenth century.