One Hundred Famous Views of Edo
Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake
大はしあたけの夕立 · Ōhashi Atake no yūdachi
Utagawa Hiroshige · 1857
What it is
A summer cloudburst catches travelers midway across the Great Bridge; rain falls in carved lines, the far bank dissolves to silhouette.
Why it matters
Van Gogh copied this print stroke for stroke in oil — the moment Japanese seeing entered European painting.
What to notice
The rain is cut as two overlapping keyblock screens at differing angles; the dark bokashi band at the horizon is hand-wiped, unique to each impression.
Everyone is caught in the rain. Everyone is hurrying home.
The record
- Artist
- Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797–1858)
- Series
- One Hundred Famous Views of Edo
- Date
- 1857
- Publisher
- Uoya Eikichi
- Medium
- woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Source
- The Art Institute of Chicago · 1981.1206
- bokashi
Impression note. Impressions differ most at the horizon, where the dark bokashi band is wiped by hand and is unique to each sheet; the finest printings keep the two overlapping rain screens crisply distinct. 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
One Hundred Famous Views of EdoPlum Estate, KameidoUtagawa Hiroshige · 1857
One Hundred Famous Views of EdoAsakusa Ricefields and Torinomachi FestivalUtagawa Hiroshige · 1857
One Hundred Famous Views of EdoMoon Pine, UenoUtagawa Hiroshige · 1857
One Hundred Famous Views of EdoFukagawa Susaki and JūmantsuboUtagawa Hiroshige · 1857The road at your moment — Painted Earth’s ukiyo-e style pack.