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Hiroshige Woodblock Print Ohashi Atake no Yudachi (One Hundred Famous Views of Edo)

Sale price$220.00

A yudachi is a specific phenomenon: an evening descent of sudden summer rain, in which the sky darkens rapidly, releases a short and heavy storm, then clears. Hiroshige rendered it in 1857 through an overlay of fine diagonal lines at crossing angles pressed across the blue-gray expanse of the Sumida River — a technically demanding woodblock technique and one of the most recognizable compositional decisions in the history of the medium. Figures on the Great Bridge scramble for cover under umbrellas, mats, and straw hats. A solitary boatman poles downstream below, indifferent. Ohashi Atake no Yudachi is the 58th print in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo and is widely considered the masterpiece of the series. In 1887, Vincent van Gogh copied it in oil paint; that painting now hangs in Amsterdam. This reproduction is produced by Takahashi Kobo, founded in Bunkyo, Tokyo between 1854 and 1860, the oldest ukiyo-e woodblock studio in continuous operation in Japan, now in its sixth generation. Every print is hand-carved, hand-pigmented, and pressed onto washi by hand with a baren.

Hiroshige Woodblock Print Ohashi Atake no Yudachi (One Hundred Famous Views of Edo)
Hiroshige Woodblock Print Ohashi Atake no Yudachi (One Hundred Famous Views of Edo) Sale price$220.00

Meet the Artisan

Takahashi Kobo

Takahashi Kobo was founded during the Ansei era, between 1854 and 1860, in what is now Bunkyo City, Tokyo, making it the oldest continuously operating ukiyo-e woodblock print studio in Japan. The Takahashi family entered the craft as surishi, the printers who translate a carver's blocks into finished images through precise control of pigment, pressure, and washi. In 1877, the second-generation Kuranosuke Takahashi exhibited at Japan's first National Industrial Exhibition and received recognition from the Minister of Home Affairs. In 1890, the third generation demonstrated the technique before Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught. From the fourth generation onward, the studio expanded into the role of hanmoto, or publisher, overseeing the full process from planning through production. The fifth-generation Shinjiro Takahashi introduced silk screen printing as a complementary technique in 1955. The current representative, Takahashi Yukiko, became the sixth-generation head in 2009 after training under her father. Under her direction, the studio has brought its techniques to institutions including the British Museum, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, and the Detroit Institute of Arts, and has undertaken revival projects of significant historical works. She chairs the Tokyo Traditional Woodblock Print Association, and the studio has been selected for the Edo Tokyo Kirari Project, a Tokyo Metropolitan Government initiative recognizing traditional Tokyo brands of international significance.