Rain at Ushibori (Ame no Ushibori)

Rain at Ushibori is one of Kawase Hasui's most celebrated depictions of rainfall and stands among his finest achievements in atmospheric landscape printing. Created in 1929 and published by Watanabe Shozaburo, the print portrays a cluster of fishing boats moored along the shore of Lake Kasumigaura near the town of Ushibori in Ibaraki Prefecture. A steady rain falls across the entire scene, rendered through fine parallel lines that create a shimmering curtain of water between viewer and landscape. The boats sit quietly on the still water, their reflections softly visible beneath the rain-disturbed surface.

Hasui was a master of depicting rain in all its variations — driving storms, gentle mists, evening showers — and this print represents the pinnacle of that skill. The technical challenge of printing convincing rain on a woodblock print is considerable, requiring precise carving of thin parallel lines and careful registration across multiple printing passes. The resulting effect in this composition is remarkably naturalistic, conveying both the visual texture of falling rain and the hushed atmosphere it creates. The palette is deliberately restrained, built from subtle gradations of gray and blue that suggest the diffused light of an overcast, rainy day.

Ushibori was a location Hasui visited repeatedly, drawn to the quiet fishing villages and expansive water views that characterized the area before modern development transformed it. This print captures a way of life intimately connected to the water, with the simple wooden boats serving as both livelihood and shelter. The composition's horizontal emphasis and low horizon line create a sense of vast, open space that reinforces the meditative quality of the scene. Rain at Ushibori has become one of the most recognized and reproduced images in the shin-hanga canon, prized by collectors for its technical refinement and its ability to evoke the sensory experience of a rainy day in rural Japan.