Evening Rain at Nihonzutsumi (Nihonzutsumi no yau), from the series "Eight Fashionable Views of Edo (Furyu Edo hakkei)"
- Date:
- c. 1768/69
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; chuban
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Evening Rain at Nihonzutsumi from the series Eight Fashionable Views of Edo (Furyu Edo hakkei), a Suzuki Harunobu print of 1763 in the Art Institute of Chicago, transposes the venerable Chinese Eight Views convention onto the geography of contemporary Edo. The Nihonzutsumi embankment ran along the Sanya canal toward the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter, and the figures who walked it in the evening light were typically clients, courtesans, and the floating-world functionaries who served them. Harunobu shows slender figures making their way along the embankment beneath umbrellas, the soft fall of rain rendered through delicate lines and the careful use of muted tones to evoke cool moist air. The series belongs to the rich tradition of meisho-e, in which famous places are depicted with seasonal or atmospheric overlay, and to the parallel tradition of mitate-e, in which classical conventions are restaged for contemporary Edo audiences. The Eight Views convention, originally Chinese and adapted to numerous Japanese locations, paired sites with prescribed atmospheric conditions such as evening rain, autumn moon, returning sails, or descending geese. Produced just before the full nishiki-e revolution, the print already shows Harunobu's command of color registration, balancing the muted greens and grays of the rainy embankment against the warm tones of the figures' umbrellas. The slender proportions and small oval faces of the figures exemplify the artist's Edo bijin-ga ideal, while the integration of figure and landscape demonstrates his contribution to the developing meisho-e tradition. The Art Institute of Chicago's catalogue entry documents this impression among Harunobu's important Edo views, demonstrating his approach to weaving the city's distinctive geography into the broader fabric of nishiki-e culture.
c. 1767/68
Color woodblock print; hashira-e
c. 1767/68
Color woodblock print; chuban
c. 1767/68
Color woodblock print; chuban
c. 1764/65
Color woodblock print; hosoban, mizu-e
1962
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
c. 1833-36
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Ame no Omiya
1930
Color woodblock print; oban
Teradomari no yau
1921
Color woodblock print; oban
Evening Rain at Nihonzutsumi (Nihonzutsumi no yau), from the series "Eight Fashionable Views of Edo (Furyu Edo hakkei)" was created by Suzuki Harunobu (鈴木春信) in c. 1768/69.
Evening Rain at Nihonzutsumi (Nihonzutsumi no yau), from the series "Eight Fashionable Views of Edo (Furyu Edo hakkei)" depicts rain.