Evening Shower over Ōhashi Bridge and Atake

In this print, the gloomy sky paired with crisscrossing lines indicate a heavy rainfall. Women and men hurry across the bridge with heads lowered; their umbrellas and straw hats offer little protection from the downpour. Yūdachi are rain showers that occur in the afternoons and evenings during summer months. The dark silhouette in the distance is an area of Edo called Atake, named after a military ship that was docked there. This print was popular both in Japan and abroad. Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh painted a version in oil in 1887, 30 years after the first run of Hiroshige’s print.