This preparatory drawing depicts a man and woman engaged in lovemaking on the bank of the Kinuta River in Settsu Province, present-day Osaka. The woman, a labourer, has momentarily set aside her work of fulling cloth, pounding fabric with a wooden mallet, and embraces her lover beneath a willow tree. Behind them, partially caressed by willow branches, a waning three-quarter moon looms overhead.

The setting deliberately invokes the well-known Kinuta or Tamagawa motif, long associated in Japanese poetry and visual culture with the sound of cloth being fulled beside a river under a full moon. This imagery, celebrated in classical verse and depicted in art, traditionally evoked autumnal melancholy, emotional solitude, and the quiet sorrow of a woman separated from her lover or husband. The term kinuta itself carried layered meanings, referring to both the river itself and to the fulling block, while the rhythmic beating of cloth was understood as echoing the monotony and emotional weight of longing.

By situating an explicitly erotic encounter within this setting, the image overturns familiar expectations. Rather than a solitary figure immersed in labour and sadness, the woman is shown in intimate union. Yet, the moon is not full but waning, perhaps subtly suggesting impermanence and foreshadowing loneliness for the woman at the moon's next phase.

The encounter may thus be read as fleeting, a moment of connection preceding separation.

The drawing is annotated with instructions indicating the colours intended for the final painting, produced either for a painting album or hand scroll, offering insight into the artist’s design process and planned palette.