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Three women in patterned kimono (rust-red with plum blossoms, olive-green geometric weave, and indigo with wave patterns) gather around a low writing table, one bent forward pouring water from a small bamboo-handled vessel onto an ink stone while the others look on; scissors and folded white paper lie on the floor nearby. A rectangular paper lantern on a red-lacquer stand stands beside them, and a flowering plum branch and a hanging brazier or lamp appear against a lattice-screened window at right. Columns of cursive Japanese text (poems) fill the left portion of the composition; the palette is muted rust, olive, indigo, and grey-blue against cream paper.