Focus on Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake and analyze the Description.
The print shows a small part of the wooden Shin-Ōhashi (New Great) bridge over the Sumida River. A boatman punts his log raft towards the Fukagawa timber yards, and in the background, at the far bank of the river, is a part of Edo known as Atake after the government ship, the Atakemaru (ja:安宅丸) that was moored there. Two women and four or five men are shown crossing the bridge sheltering under hats, umbrellas or straw capes from a sudden shower of rain. Sudden showers are a recurring theme in ukiyo-e works and here, in what Hiroshige calls "white rain", the downpour is depicted using a large number of thin dark parallel lines in 2 directions - a difficult skill in woodblock carving. The dark clouds are produced using a gradated bokashi technique and vary significantly between prints. The rain, sheltering people and log raft at the centre of the image give the image a sense of movement.
bokashi Edo ukiyo-e Hiroshige Sumida River