Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake

Which print are we looking at?

The Met records this impression as a woodblock print in ink and colour on paper. The museum’s “Image” field gives 37.5 by 24.4 cm; it lists the mat separately. It entered the collection as a gift from Mr. and Mrs. A. I. Sherr in 1956. ^[1]

The collection number matters. A familiar title can identify a design without identifying the physical sheet reproduced beside it. Keep JP3174 with this image when comparing it with another museum’s print.

The museum record listed JP3174 as not on view when checked on 6 October 2026. ^[1] Display information can change: consult the museum’s own record before planning a visit.

Follow the rain through the whole scene

In this digital reproduction, narrow dark lines pass across the sky, distant bank, river and bridge. Follow one group of lines from the dark sky at the top edge towards the people below. Their direction differs from the bridge’s long diagonal. The crossing directions make a useful looking exercise: the rain cuts across a structure that already carries the eye through the picture.

Now follow the bridge rail. Some figures gather beneath a yellow covering; others use dark coverings or a broad hat. On the river, higher in the picture than the bridge deck, a person stands on a long narrow vessel.

Return to the whole sheet after looking at a detail. Rain crosses both the bridge and river; a crop can help inspect a passage but cannot show how the rain connects these areas across the complete image.

Outlined area: this detail’s location on the whole sheet.

How does printed gradation make a stormy sky?

Bokashi means colour gradation in Rebecca Salter’s account of Japanese woodblock printing. She discusses this named design as an example of ichimonjimura bokashi: straight-line gradation with an uneven edge, used to suggest rainy or stormy skies. ^[2]

Look back at the dark sky at the top edge of the Met reproduction and follow its transition towards the paler sky. The dark tree-covered bank across the middle is a separate region. Compare the sky’s broad tonal change with the thin rain lines passing through it.

Outlined area: this detail’s location on the whole sheet.

Why can two impressions differ?

Salter explains that brushed or wiped bokashi can vary because the brushing of each block may differ slightly, making complete consistency difficult across an edition. ^[2]

The British Museum’s exhibition guide identifies its own impression, 1948,0508,0.5, as a first edition. The guide describes two boats silhouetted near the upper-right shore. It identifies a light mark beneath the bridge as a block cutter’s error corrected in later versions. ^[3] Compare those features with the Met sheet shown here, keeping the two collection numbers in view.

This gives a practical order for comparing reproductions: first identify the museum and collection number, then read what that museum says about the particular sheet. Afterwards, compare the stated features. Colour alone should not settle an edition question.

Read the British Museum’s exhibition guide for its description of impression 1948,0508,0.5. ^[3]

Where does the composition place us?

The British Museum guide reads the design through changing viewpoints: the bridge from above, a view across the river and the storm clouds from below. ^[3] Use that interpretation as a looking prompt. Follow the bridge’s surface, move to the far bank, then look back towards the dark sky at the top edge. Notice how the picture brings those regions together rather than treating them as one simple view.

The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum lists 35.7 by 24.7 cm for its separate impression, without identifying that figure as the printed area or sheet size. ^[4] Keep those measurements with that museum’s print, rather than replacing the Met’s image dimensions with them. A shared design title is not evidence that two museum photographs reproduce the same sheet.

Uspensky explains Shin-Ōhashi as “New Great Bridge” and identifies Atake as the popular name for the far bank shown in the print. His account dates the bridge’s construction to 1693. ^[5] Read the title as a connection between the crossing and the bank beyond it, then find both in the complete composition.

Uspensky’s catalogue places this work in its summer section and discusses people seeking shelter. ^[5] That context gives another reason to return to the figures. Their coverings are small shapes within a much larger field of rain. The scale of the reproduced sheet changes on your screen; the relationship between those shapes remains something to examine in the complete composition.

Continue looking: The Great Wave

Open Hokusai’s Great Wave and follow the curves around the crest. Then compare their effect with Hiroshige’s thin lines of rain and broad sky gradation. Check the collection number before comparing object-specific details.