UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE (1797-1858)

Along with Kanbara: Evening Snow, this print is amongst Hiroshige's masterpieces. Here travellers and two porters carrying a client in a kago [traveling chair] are forced to run through a sudden and heavy rainstorm near the town of Shono in Ise Province. The umbrella of the figure on the right has two inscriptions: Takenouchi, the publisher of the series, and Gojusan tsugi ['Fifty-three Stations'], part of the title of the series. Thatched roofs of houses are visible on the right through the diagonal rain. Further adding to the sense of drama are the dark rows of trees bent low by the wind across the background.

The same print is in numerous museum collections including:

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (accession number 11.25063), go to: https://www.mfa.org/collections/search

The British Museum (accession number 1937,0710,0.257), go to: https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx