1833
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Driving Rain at Shōno, from Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaidō is a 1833 by Utagawa Hiroshige, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see travelers trudging through a downpour, bamboo bending in the wind, and gray sheets of rain blurring the path ahead. The rain isn’t just drawn—it’s printed in three shades of gray, each layer carved from a separate woodblock. The publisher’s name is even tucked onto an umbrella, like a tiny signature in the storm. If you like how rain feels in this print, look up *sfumato*—it’s the way artists soften edges to make things look misty or far away.
Utagawa Hiroshige’s design for this print captures the atmospheric qualities of rain and its effects on two groups of travelers. Three printing blocks were required to produce the three shades of gray used to suggest distance in the thickets of bamboo in the background. The publisher’s name, “Takenouchi,” and part of the series title, Fifty-Three Stations , are written on one person’s umbrella. Hiroshige created many different print series on the Tokaidō, a road that ran from Kyoto to Edo (now Tokyo). Shōno was a minor way station along this largely coastal route.
A large red seal with the publisher’s name, Takenouchi, is stamped on the left side of the print.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川 広重) or Andō Hiroshige (安藤 広重), born Andō Tokutarō (安藤 徳太郎; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, considered the last great master of that tradition.
See the richer artist page
