Evening Rain, Yanaka Pagoda, Tokyo records the pagoda at Tennoji Temple in the Yanaka district of Tokyo, one of the most painted and photographed structures of pre-war and immediate postwar Tokyo, in a moment of falling rain. The Yanaka pagoda, a five-story wooden structure long associated with the surrounding shitamachi neighbourhood, was destroyed by fire in 1957; surviving images of it, including Shiro Kasamatsu's [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) treatments, now function as both art and historical record. Kasamatsu sets the pagoda against a darkening sky, with diagonal lines of rain articulated through fine keyblock cutting and the wet streets reflecting muted lantern and window light. The choice of subject reflects shin-hanga's broader interest in atmospheric, mood-driven views of Japanese landscape and architecture, often photographed-feeling but rooted in the traditional categories of fukei-ga (landscape pictures) and [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) (famous-place pictures). The print follows the standard shin-hanga production model associated with the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo, with whom Kasamatsu collaborated for much of his career: the artist's drawing was carved into a keyblock and a sequence of colour blocks, then printed by workshop printers using techniques including [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradation, controlled embossing, and careful registration. The print is documented through the [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e).org aggregator, which catalogues impressions in museum and dealer collections.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Evening Rain, Yanaka Pagoda, Tokyo was created by Shiro Kasamatsu (笠松紫浪).
Evening Rain, Yanaka Pagoda, Tokyo depicts pagodas and rain.
