Spring Rain at Benkei Bridge (Translation)
One Hundred Views of New Tokyo (Series Title)
新東京百景集 弁慶橋之春雨 (Primary Title)
Kawase Hasui 川瀬巴水, Japanese, 1883 - 1957 (Artist)
Watanabe Shōzaburō 渡邊庄三郎, Japanese, 1885 - 1962 (Publisher)
Built in 1889 by Benkei Kozaemon, a carpenter of the Edo Castle, the Benkei Bridge is a wood-and-stone structure that spans an outer moat of the castle, west of today’s Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Raised in the capital, Hasui selected this familiar scene for his planned series One Hundred Views of New Tokyo. In this view, he illustrated two pedestrians holding umbrellas against the rain as they cross the bridge with the road lined with trees and cherry blossoms. The artist’s masterful printmaking skills came through in the reflection of the bridge in the water.
Showa period (1926-1989)
巴水 Hasui
Artist's seal; Publisher's seal Watanabe Shōzaburō
弁慶橋之春雨 昭和十一年四月寫
René and Carolyn Balcer Collection
Brown, Kendall. Water and Shadow: Kawase Hasui and Japanese Landscape Prints. Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2014.
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