Night Rain at Karasaki, from the series Eight Views of Ōmi (Ōmi hakkei no uchi)

Night Rain at Karasaki, from the series Eight Views of Ōmi (Ōmi hakkei no uchi)

Utagawa Hiroshige

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Karasaki was famous for its ancient pine tree, which was revered as sacred. Images of Karasaki in the evening rain were among the earliest manifestations of the Eight Views theme, set at Ōmi, the area around Lake Biwa, southeast of Kyoto. The impression of drenching rain was achieved by a screen of fine, vertical ink lines superimposed over the muted tonal gradations of the huge pine that dominates the picture. Hiroshige, one of Japan’s foremost landscapists, designed two extremely popular series: Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō and One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Night Rain at Karasaki, from the series Eight Views of Ōmi (Ōmi hakkei no uchi)Night Rain at Karasaki, from the series Eight Views of Ōmi (Ōmi hakkei no uchi)Night Rain at Karasaki, from the series Eight Views of Ōmi (Ōmi hakkei no uchi)Night Rain at Karasaki, from the series Eight Views of Ōmi (Ōmi hakkei no uchi)Night Rain at Karasaki, from the series Eight Views of Ōmi (Ōmi hakkei no uchi)

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.