Evening Rain at Azuma Shrine (Azuma no mori yau), from the series "Eight Views in the Environs of Edo (Edo Kinko hakkei no uchi)"

Evening Rain at Azuma Shrine (Azuma no mori yau), from the series "Eight Views in the Environs of Edo (Edo Kinko hakkei no uchi)," is an early-1830s woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige. The series adapts the classical Sino-Japanese template of eight scenic moods, evening rain, returning sails, autumn moon, and so on, to the satellite landscapes immediately surrounding the shogunal capital. Azuma Shrine, on the east bank of the Sumida River, was associated with Yamato Takeru and his consort Ototachibana-hime; its precincts, with mature trees and grounds along the river, were a familiar resort for Edo residents. Hiroshige's Evening Rain at Azuma shows the shrine under a heavy downpour: dense vertical lines, etched into the printing block, cut across the design from top to bottom and overlay the trees, gateway, and embankment with a continuous gauze of falling water. This convention for rain, a hallmark of Edo ukiyo-e and especially identified with Hiroshige's landscape print practice, demonstrates the carver's and printer's craft as much as the artist's drawing. Figures hurry beneath umbrellas or shelter under eaves, deepening the scene's sense of weather and time. This impression is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. As part of Edo Kinko hakkei, the print sits within Hiroshige's persistent effort to systematize the experience of Edo's countryside into a coherent set of moods, places, and seasons that audiences could collect, read, and remember.