Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Hōeidō edition)
Shōno: Driving Rain
庄野 白雨 · Shōno, hakuu
Utagawa Hiroshige · c. 1833–34
What it is
A sudden shower — hakuu, "white rain" — lashes the hillside at Shōno: palanquin bearers scramble up the slope as villagers dash down it, and the bamboo grove behind bends into gray silhouette.
Why it matters
With Kambara’s snow, one of the two undisputed masterpieces of the series — a print in which weather itself, not the station, is the subject, and every figure is caught mid-stride inside it.
What to notice
The rain is carved as sheets of fine parallel lines slanting across the entire image; the grove behind is printed in two flat tones of gray with no outline, a storm within the storm.
The road gives no shelter. The travelers run anyway.
The record
- Artist
- Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797–1858)
- Series
- Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Hōeidō edition)
- Date
- c. 1833–34
- Publisher
- Hōeidō (Takenouchi Magohachi)
- Medium
- woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Source
- The Art Institute of Chicago · 1964.1057c
- bokashi
Impression note. The storm lives in the printing: the driving rain is cut as fine parallel keyblock lines across the whole sheet, and the two gray tones of the bamboo grove behind are flat silhouette blocks whose balance shifts from printing to printing. Impression variance is real — printings differ in wiping and fading — and choosing the finest openly held impression is the curatorial act.
Public domain; faithfully reproduced.
Bring it home
Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm.
From the same series
Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Hōeidō edition)Nihonbashi: Morning SceneUtagawa Hiroshige · c. 1833–34
Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Hōeidō edition)Shinagawa: SunriseUtagawa Hiroshige · c. 1833–34
Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Hōeidō edition)Hakone: The LakeUtagawa Hiroshige · c. 1833–34
Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Hōeidō edition)Mishima: Morning MistUtagawa Hiroshige · c. 1833–34The road at your moment — Painted Earth’s ukiyo-e style pack.