88 Utagawa Hiroshige IV 1849 – 1925 Night Rain on a Bridge

Japan, c. 1920s–1930s

This highly atmospheric and poetic sheet is a handsome example of the shin-hanga ("new prints") movement from the interwar period. The scene captures a rainstorm at night, with slanting raindrops cutting across the dark sky. In the foreground, pedestrians holding umbrellas hurry across a wooden bridge, illuminated by the warm glow of lanterns. Distant city lights, the silhouette of another bridge, and a single boat can be seen along the horizon. The design is traditionally attributed to Hiroshige IV, a moniker used by leading Japanese publishers for nostalgic landscapes produced primarily for Western export. As is very common with export prints from this era, this specific impression was intentionally printed without the artist's signature to appeal to Western buyers who preferred a "pure" pictorial space free of foreign characters. The print boasts an exceptional provenance, originating from the famous collection of the Czech painter and collector Vojtěch Chytil, who imported such contemporary works to Central Europe in the 1920s and 30s.