Rain at the Togano Gate

This Metropolitan Museum of Art miniature woodblock print by Hasegawa Sadanobu I depicts a rain-swept view of the Togano gate, one of the historic entries marking the approaches to Kyoto from the surrounding hills. The print belongs to Sadanobu's prolific output of small-format Kyoto and Osaka views — a category he made his own across the 1840s through 1860s — and demonstrates his command of weather effects in the color woodblock medium. Diagonal sheets of falling rain printed as carefully cut linear elements traverse the composition, transforming the rigid architectural lines of the gate into a softened, atmospheric scene. The night and rain treatments that recur across Sadanobu's miniature views show the influence of Hiroshige's celebrated atmospheric prints, which Sadanobu also adapted directly through scaled-down copies for the Osaka miniature market. The Met's holding (JP1404) preserves the print at its original small format, allowing modern viewers to experience the intimate scale and tactile sheen that distinguished these inexpensive souvenir prints from the larger oban format dominant in Edo.