Artist:Utagawa Hiroshige
Medium: Woodblock print
Geograhical Locations:
Dates:9th month of 1857
Dimensions: Sheet: 14 3/16 x 9 1/8 in. (36.1 x 23.1 cm) Image: 13 1/4 x 8 3/4 in. (33.7 x 22.2 cm)
Collections:
Exhibitions:
Accession Number: 30.1478.58
Image: 30.1478.58_PS20.jpg,
Catalogue Description: This print is considered the masterpiece of this series and compares in its appeal with another of Hiroshige's most famous landscapes, Shono, in "The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido," which also depicts escape from a sudden rain. This print, along with the view of the Kameido plum tree (print 30 from the series), were copied in oil by Vincent van Gogh. The rolling black clouds, the torrents of rain -- depicted through an overlay of black and gray lines at different angles -- and the blue-gray of the Sumida River show the intensity of the summer storm. There are six figures on the bridge, attempting to escape from the rain, under hats, mats, and umbrellas and a lone boatman on the river. Looking beyond the Shin-Ohashi, or New Great Bridge, is the Atake of the title, an informal place name for the area shown on the far bank, named after a huge bakufu ship which was moored in front of the shogunal boathouses here from the 1630's until it was dismantled in 1682. An earlier version of this print (showing an additional two log raft along the far shore), is in the Brooklyn Museum collection.