Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake (Ōhashi Atake no yūdachi), from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)

This print shows a sudden rainstorm on the Shin-Ohashi bridge in Edo (now Tokyo), from Hiroshige's series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, published in 1857. It is one of the best-known prints in the series. The bridge crosses the image diagonally from lower left to upper right. Figures on the bridge hunch under straw hats and umbrellas, their postures conveying the urgency of the downpour. The rain falls in thick dark lines that cut across the entire composition at a sharp angle. The Sumida River stretches below, rendered in grey and blue. At the far end of the bridge, a cluster of buildings is barely visible through the rain. The palette is dominated by greys, blues, and the dark lines of the rain. Hiroshige was around sixty when he designed the One Hundred Views series. He had been producing landscape prints for over twenty years, since his first major series, The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido, in 1833. The One Hundred Views was his last great project. He died in 1858, during the series' publication, and some of the later prints were completed by his successor Hiroshige II. The One Hundred Views of Edo came two decades after Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. By the 1850s, landscape prints were an established genre in ukiyo-e. Hiroshige's approach was more atmospheric than Hokusai's, focused on weather, season, and the daily life of the city rather than on monumental geography. Woodblock print, ink and color on paper, 34 by 24.1 centimeters. The vertical format (oban tate-e) was standard for the One Hundred Views series. The rain lines were printed from a single block carved with thin parallel grooves. The vertical format and cool palette make this print work well in a narrow wall space: beside a doorway, in a stairwell, or on a pillar. It pairs well with grey walls and dark wood. The 12x16 framed version in a black frame suits modern interiors. The Met's impression was purchased with the Joseph Pulitzer Bequest in 1918. This is a public domain artwork (CC0), from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 24x36 inches, framed or unframed. The image is printed at full resolution with no cropping.