Ox Fair at Takanawa

Two puppies hide behind the large wheel of an oxcart as a rainbow appears in the sky, hinting at a recent rainfall. Rainbows are relatively rare in early modern Japanese painting. During the Edo period, rainbows were believed to comprise five colors: yellow, red, green, purple, and blue. The use of just three colors in Hiroshige’s print—white, yellow, and light blue—might have been due to print-related financial constraints, as the use of five different colors would have required five separate blocks.