Night Rain distills two of Kasamatsu's strongest atmospheric themes into a single powerful composition. Watanabe lifetime editions command $1,500-$3,500, reflecting the strong collector demand for his rain and nocturnal subjects. The technical challenge of conveying both darkness and falling rain through woodblock printing makes fine impressions of this design particularly impressive.
Rain falls in darkness — a black night split by the sound and movement of water — in this atmospheric print that treats rain and darkness as inseparable conditions. Kasamatsu's night rain scenes are among his most formally bold, requiring the composition to function with almost none of the visual information that daylight provides. The image likely reduces the scene to a few tonal zones: the dark sky, the illuminated surfaces wet with rain, and the rain itself rendered as diagonal striation or moving blur.
Woodblock print
Teradomari no yau
1921
Color woodblock print; oban
![Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)" by Kawase Hasui](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
March 1933
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Night Rain was created by Shiro Kasamatsu (笠松紫浪).
Night Rain uses Bokashi, Nishiki-e, and Moku-hanga, on woodblock print.
Night Rain was published by Watanabe Shozaburo.
Night Rain depicts night scenes and rain.
