Heavy Rain at Ochanomizu Bridge (Ochanomizu-bashi ō-ame 御茶ノ水橋 大雨), from the series “The Distribution Committee of Kiyochika’s Landscape Prints” (Kiyochika fūkei shinga hanpukai 清親風景真画頒布会)
Heavy Rain at Ochanomizu Bridge (Ochanomizu-bashi ō-ame 御茶ノ水橋 大雨), from the series “The Distribution Committee of Kiyochika’s Landscape Prints” (Kiyochika fūkei shinga hanpukai 清親風景真画頒布会)

Currently not on view

Heavy Rain at Ochanomizu Bridge (Ochanomizu-bashi ō-ame 御茶ノ水橋 大雨), from the series “The Distribution Committee of Kiyochika’s Landscape Prints” (Kiyochika fūkei shinga hanpukai 清親風景真画頒布会),

ca. 1915 [Taishō 4]

Kobayashi Kiyochika 小林清親, 1847–1915
Published by Matsuki Heikichi 松木平吉
Japanese
Meiji era, 1868–1912
2011-12

Information

Title
Heavy Rain at Ochanomizu Bridge (Ochanomizu-bashi ō-ame 御茶ノ水橋 大雨), from the series “The Distribution Committee of Kiyochika’s Landscape Prints” (Kiyochika fūkei shinga hanpukai 清親風景真画頒布会)
Dates

ca. 1915 [Taishō 4]

Maker
Kobayashi Kiyochika 小林清親
Published by Matsuki Heikichi 松木平吉
Medium
Woodblock print (ōban yoko-e format); ink and color on paper
Dimensions
block: 19.5 x 31.4 cm sheet: 27 x 40 cm. (10 5/8 x 15 3/4 in.) mount: 32 x 40.5 cm
Credit Line
Museum purchase, The Anne van Biema Collection Fund
Object Number
2011-12
Place Made

Asia, Japan

Inscription
Publisher’s stamp verso Verso: Kiyochika fūkei shinga hanpu kai 清親風景真画頒布会 [the Distribution Committee of Kiyochika’s Landscape Prints] Watermark of four characters, left margin: Kiyochika hanga 清親版画
Description
The blocks for this series were in preparation when Kiyochika died in 1915 and were first issued shortly thereafter. The set appears to comprise some 26 designs and is exceptionally rare. Each print bears the publisher's stamp on the verso together with the notation Kiyochika fūkei shinga hanpu kai, or the Distribution Committee of Kiyochika’s Landscape Prints. In other words, this series was a commissioned and limited edition. On the left margin, there is a watermark with four characters, “Kiyochika hanga” (清親版画), or Kiyochika’s woodblock prints. Watermarks were widely used in paper money in the Meiji era, and sometimes in prints as well. Andrew Hare, a supervisory conservator at the Smithsonian, thinks this paper was made in the Kurotani Studio, which was known for making paper for artists in the Meiji-Taishō eras. Japanese printmakers started to follow the western practice by adding watermarks in papers to better mark the authorship. The diagonal lines created by using an embossing technique render the rainstorm very effectively.
Culture
Japanese
Period
Meiji
Type
japanese printmaking styles, woodblock prints, prints
Materials
oban, color, ink, paper
Techniques
woodcut (process)
Subject
boats, storms, rain, bridges (built works), bridges (built works)

–2011 Japan Print Gallery (London, United Kingdom), sold to the Princeton University Art Museum, 2011.

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