Driving Rain at Shōno

The artwork

A sudden downpour bends the bamboo on the hillside, and bearers and travellers hurry downhill, bent under the slanting rain. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The greys of the rain, the blue of the road and the yellow of the straw capes.
• A dramatic, modern image that gives character to a study or a living room.
• A gift for anyone who loves the most famous Japanese prints.

It is one of the Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō, the series that made Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), the best loved landscape artist of Japan, famous, published between 1833 and 1834 by the publisher Takenouchi, under the Hōeidō name. The Tōkaidō was the great road, largely along the coast, that linked Edo, today's Tokyo, with Kyoto.

Shōno was a small stopping place, and Hiroshige makes it memorable with a storm. For the bamboo in the background he uses three different woodblocks, one for each shade of grey, so that the grove seems to recede into the rain. On one umbrella we can read the publisher's name and part of the series title: a small signature inside the picture. Our reproduction comes from the impression in the Cleveland Museum of Art, in the United States.

In a study or a living room it brings all the energy of a storm. A gift for anyone who loves Japanese art.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass