Rain of the Fifth Month (Samidare)

Kunisada's vision of an early summer scene, luxuriant in the soft rain of the fifth month, reflects a new sensibility for landscape among late Edo artists. The unhurried pleasures of a warm summer day seem heightened by the soft rain, which hardly affects the activities of the travelers, fisherman, and groom. A bright light infuses the atmosphere and is enhanced by the unusual use of blue pigment for the evenly spaced, vertical lines of rain.

Utagawa Kunisada, known as Toyokuni III, designed more prints for the mass market than any other artist of his time.

Credit: Henry L. Phillips Collection, Bequest of Henry L. Phillips, 1939...