Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake - After Utagawa Hiroshige

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)

Title: Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake (Ōhashi Atake no Yūdachi)

Series: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo Hyakkei)

Original Design Date: 1857

Original Publisher: Uoya Eikichi (Sakanaya Eikichi)

Reprint Publisher: Daiichi Kōgei

Edition: 20th-century Shōwa-period recarved edition

Medium: Genuine Japanese color woodblock print

Format: Ōban tate-e

Paper Size: [add exact dimensions]

This genuine Japanese woodblock print is a 20th-century Daiichi Kōgei reproduction of Hiroshige’s Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake, one of the most famous designs from his late masterpiece One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. The original was published by Uoya Eikichi in the ninth month of 1857. The red Daiichi Kōgei-ban inscription in the lower left margin identifies this impression as a later recarved edition rather than an Edo-period printing.

Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake captures the instant a summer downpour sweeps across the Sumida River. Travelers hurry across the bridge, bending beneath umbrellas and straw rain capes, while a lone boatman continues downriver through the storm. Hiroshige renders the rain as long, sharply angled lines cutting across the entire composition, while the distant shore nearly disappears behind the gray curtain of water. The steep diagonal of the bridge gives the image a remarkable sense of movement and makes the viewer feel caught in the storm alongside the figures.

Inscriptions & Marks:

• Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige
• Title: Ōhashi Atake no Yūdachi (大はしあたけの夕立), “Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake”
• Series: Meisho Edo Hyakkei (名所江戸百景), “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo”
• Original design date: 1857, ninth month
• Original publisher: Uoya Eikichi (also known as Sakanaya Eikichi)
• Reprint publisher: Daiichi Kōgei
• Red Daiichi Kōgei edition mark in lower left margin
• Hiroshige signature reproduced from the original design
• Genuine carved-and-printed Japanese woodblock reproduction

Condition: Very Good. Full margins with light overall toning and minor scattered surface marks consistent with age. Minor handling wear and light discoloration to the margins. Colors remain strong, with attractive blue gradation in the river and deep gray-black printing in the stormy sky. Please review the photographs carefully, as they form part of the condition description.

About the Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) was one of the greatest masters of Japanese woodblock printmaking and the artist most closely associated with landscape ukiyo-e. Best known for his poetic depictions of travel, changing seasons, weather, and the quiet beauty of everyday life, Hiroshige transformed familiar places into deeply atmospheric works through his masterful use of composition and color. His celebrated series, including The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō and One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, became some of the most influential prints ever produced in Japan.

About the Series: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo was Hiroshige’s great late-career series, produced between 1856 and 1858. Rather than simply documenting famous locations around Edo, Hiroshige experimented with dramatic cropping, unusual perspectives, exaggerated foreground elements, weather, and seasonal effects. The series ultimately comprised more than one hundred designs and represents some of the most inventive work of Hiroshige’s career.

Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake is among the most celebrated images in the entire series and one of Hiroshige’s best-known works. Its influence extended well beyond Japan: Vincent van Gogh owned and studied Japanese prints and made a painted copy of this composition, Japonaiserie: Bridge in the Rain, demonstrating the enormous influence Hiroshige had on European artists during the rise of Japonisme.

About this Edition: This impression is not an Edo-period printing. The red 第一巧藝版 (Daiichi Kōgei-ban)inscription in the lower left margin identifies it as a later Japanese reproduction. The Daiichi Kōgei editions were genuine woodblock prints produced from newly carved blocks after historic ukiyo-e designs rather than photomechanical reproductions. For a sales listing, I would conservatively describe this as a 20th-century Shōwa-period Daiichi Kōgei recarved edition unless documentation establishing a more precise publication date is available.