What is the title of Hiroshige’s ukiyo-e print showing a sudden rain shower at Shin-Ōhashi bridge?
Answer
Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake
Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake is the title of Hiroshige’s ukiyo-e print showing a sudden rain shower there.
The print belongs to One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, Hiroshige’s late landscape series published between 1856 and 1859. It shows figures hurrying across Shin-Ōhashi bridge as diagonal rain falls over the Sumida River area. A large umbrella and woven straw rain cap emphasize the ordinary experience of an Edo downpour.
The design is famous for its dramatic cropping: the bridge and figures occupy the foreground, while distant Atake and the river recede behind them. This unusual composition attracted European artists, including Vincent van Gogh, who painted a copy of the image in 1887.
The title is sometimes shortened in English, which can cause confusion with other Hiroshige rain scenes. It is not part of Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō; it belongs specifically to One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, a series focused on places in and around the shogunal capital.