Comparative Cultural Considerations on Rain (雨の比較文化考）
Comparative Cultural Considerations on Rain, 2018
By Yamada Tadashi
山田維史 「雨の比較文化考」 ある医療クリニックのカンファレンス・ルームでの講義原稿
Introduction
When I try to recall works depicting rain in the history of Western painting, I can't immediately think of any. Naturally, it is a motif in landscape paintings. The earliest painter to focus on landscapes was probably Leonardo da Vinci. In the so-called "Windsor Leaves" in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, there is a "Storm in a Valley at the Foot of the Alps" along with a study sketch of the famous "Flood." I think the countless "lines" pouring violently from the cloud masses are rain.
There is a drawing in Dutch painting that is very similar to this da Vinci drawing. It is "Landscape in the Rain" by Meindert Hobbema, who is known only to have been a pupil of the master Ruisdael. It is owned by the Hermitage Museum and was once exhibited in Japan from September to October 1983.
We must not forget Gustave Caillebotte's "Parisian Streets in the Rain," Camus Pissarro's "Boulevard Montmartre After the Rain," and William Turner's masterpiece "Rain, Steam, and Speed."
As I will explain later, there are other works, but I cannot immediately remember them.
What about Japan?
Utagawa (Ando) Hiroshige's "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido: Shono (安藤・歌川広重；東海道五拾三次; 庄野)“ and "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo: A Thunder Shower at Oohashi Bridge （江戸百景；大はしあたけの夕立 )” are well known. I believe these two works are world-renowned as paintings of rain. They cannot compare to Da Vinci's sketches. I even think they are far superior. Hiroshige's other works include "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido: Oiso, Tiger's Rain (東海道五拾三次; 大磯・虎ヶ雨) ” and "Eight Views of Omi: Night Rain at Karasaki (近江八景; 唐崎夜雨).”
And Suzuki Harunobu's "Pilgrimage to the Shrine on a Rainy Night (Mitate Aritoshi Myojin) (鈴木春信；雨夜の宮詣; 見立蟻通明神 )“ is also a well-known ukiyo-e. Harunobu's works include "Eight Views of Elegant Singing: Night Rain on the Strings (風流うたひ八景; 絃上の夜雨 ),” "Shower (Picture Calendar of the Second Year of the Meiwa Era) (夕立図; 明和二年絵暦 )“ in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, and "Abura-bozu from the Tale of the Heike (平家物語油坊主 )“ in the collection of the Oparin University Museum of Art. "Manners and Customs: The Greatest Poets on the Four Seasons: Kannazuki (風俗四季歌仙; 神無月)“ in the collection of Keiogijyuku University in Tokyo is an interior scene, but the diagonal lines on the left side of the painting, behind the veranda, represent rain. The following poem is written into a cloud shape at the top of the painting: "In this world without lies, Kannazuki, the rain begins to fall sincerely." The second line reads, "Shigure someken (It seemes like it’s starting to rain).”
A booklet called "Ansei Fubunshu (安政風聞集) “ contains illustrations in two colored pages depicting the damage caused by the Ansei storm and its restoration. Among them is a picture of the main hall of Nishi Honganji Temple in Tsukiji collapsing in the rain.
Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Yagyo of One Hundred Demons (画図百鬼夜行) is famous for its paintings of monsters and ghosts, and one of them, Ubume (姑獲鳥), is set in the rain.
Another ghost painting, Funayurei (船幽霊；Ghost Boat), from Utagawa Toyohiro's Kuwanaya Tokuzo Kaisenbanashi (歌川豊広；桑名屋徳蔵廻船咄), is set in the rain.
Although it is not common, for some reason ghost paintings do include scenes with rain. In Katsushika Taito's Mukashigatari Ibara no Tsuyu (葛飾戴斗；昔語茨の露；Dew on Old Words Thorns) and Kitao Shigemasa's Revenge on Asaka Swamp (北尾重政；復讐安積沼), the ghost of Obata Koheiji appears in a rainstorm.
In contemporary Japanese painting, Fukuda Heihachiro's Rain (福田平八郎；雨、1953, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo), which depicts the traces of raindrops on a tiled roof, leaves a vivid impression, although it is not rain itself.
Quantitatively, it seems that the amount of rain in Japanese paintings is incomparable to that in Western paintings.
So, using this as a starting point, I would like to consider what it means to "paint rain" and whether it is due to differences in each culture. I would like to think about these things.
(Top left) Utagawa Hiroshige, "Shono" from "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido"
(Top right) Utagawa Hiroshige, "Thunder Shower on the Great Bridge Atake" from "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo"
(Bottom left) Suzuki Harunobu, "Beauty in the Rain" from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
(Bottom right) Suzuki Harunobu, "Night Pilgrimage in the Rain" from the Tokyo National Museum
Toriyama Sekien: "Ubume" from "Illustrated Night Parade of One Hundred Demons"
Leonardo da Vinci's Drawings
"Storm in an Alpine Valley"
Leonardo da Vinci is thought to have started studying landscapes through sketches in the 1500s. At that time, the genre of "landscape painting" did not yet exist in the history of European painting.
"Storm in an Alpine Valley" included in the Windsor Manuscript is thought to have been painted between 1503 and 1504, and it depicts the "line rain" that caught my attention. It shows a bird's-eye view of a small village far below from a very high mountaintop, but in fact this very "apparent" sketch is thought to be Leonardo's imagination. Around this time, Leonardo was studying the movement of water, especially the great floods that engulf towns and villages, and the power of water. A considerable number of sketches remain. Among these sketches, "Storm in an Alpine Valley" is said to be a study for a narrative picture. In other words, it is an illustration, but no such storybook has been found. Leonardo seems to have been on an imaginary journey, dreaming of crossing the Alps. In reality, he painted a landscape he had never seen, but in this way it looked very realistic.
The storm with rain depicted here is also not real. I cannot help but pay attention to this point. It is the reason why Leonardo's painting of rain did not lead to line drawings of rain in European painting. I think we cannot overlook the fact that this sketch study by Leonardo, who had a great influence on the artistic field in the Italian world at that time, was an extremely private notebook that was not intended to be published.
I am aware that I am making a very bold statement.
The aforementioned "Rainy Landscape" by the Dutchman Meindert Hobbema is estimated to have been painted between 1660 and 1670. It is about 160 years after Leonardo's drawing.
In fact, there is a copperplate print by another Dutch master, Rembrandt, in which it is difficult to determine whether it is "rain" or "rays of light." It is titled "Three Trees." This work was created about 20 years before Meindert's "Landscape in the Rain."
Meindert Hobbema's "Landscape in the Rain" was once considered to be the work of his master Ruisdael during the course of specialized research, but in 1961 it was listed in the catalog as Meindert's work. The reason why such a problem arose was because of the description of the old owner, but in fact another problem has been pointed out as the issue of the "motif." Currently, the official catalog of the Hermitage Museum states as follows:
"...However, those who support the Ruisdael theory are not without reason. This drawing is characterized by a kind of boldness, both in the motif of rain and in the panoramic view, which is reminiscent of Ruisdael. "
What we can understand from this description is that it was "bold" to focus on "rain." In other words, it can be said that it was a very unique motif in painting at that time.
We will consider why this is so later, but in these three works by Leonardo, Meindert, and, with some doubt, Rembrandt, we can say that the reason we perceive "rain" is because the rain is depicted as lines. Moreover, this is an expression that is familiar to us as Japanese people.
(Top) Leonardo da Vinci's "Storm in an Alpine Valley"
(Center) Meindert Hobbema's "Rainy Landscape" (Hermitage Museum)
(Bottom) Rembrandt's "Three Trees"
The pioneer of "rain line drawings" in Japan
So, who in Japan first came up with the idea of "rain drawn by lines" that we are familiar with in the works of Ando Hiroshige and other ukiyo-e artists?
It is not so easy to answer this question. Nowadays, even kindergarteners may draw stick-like rain with blue crayons. However, this is because the depiction of rain in this way has become established in Japanese culture, and, although it may sound silly, the expression has been passed down as "genes".
Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858) was an artist from the end of the Edo period. Even in ukiyo-e, Suzuki Harunobu (1725-70), who lived half a century earlier than Ando, was already drawing rain by lines. In fact, Suzuki Harunobu has many more works depicting rain than Hiroshige whom I call the "painter of rain". Harunobu has a masterpiece such as "Pilgrimage to the Palace on a Rainy Night (Mitate Aridoshi Myojin Shrine)". It is a painting that everyone remembers when they hear Harunobu.
Katsukawa Shuncho, who painted "Evening Shower (夕立)“ (owned by Ota Memorial Museum of Art), in which a sudden shower comes rushing in, stirring up a wind and fluttering the hems of the kimonos of three women, is an artist who, although his birth and death years are unknown, was a pupil of Katsukawa Shunsho (1726-92), and so follows Harunobu in his career.
Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806), a painter of beautiful women, also painted rain. As far as I have been able to find, there are only two such works, but one of them, the triptych "Sheltering from the Rain (雨宿り),” is superb.
How about moving away from ukiyo-e?
In addition to the storm drawing mentioned above, Leonardo's Windsor manuscript contains several other storm study drawings. Among them is a drawing of a mass of black cloud with countless short lines radiating into the air. This does not seem to be rain, because the lines do not necessarily radiate downwards. It is thought that this probably represents the energy of a storm-filled cloud, or the force of the wind.
From Leonardo da Vinci's Windsor Manuscript (enlarged image on the right)
What I associate with this drawing is the Matsuzaki Tenjin Engi (松崎天神縁起) (created in June 1311, the first year of the Ocho era), which was created 200 years before Leonardo's drawing.
This is the so-called Tenjin faith engi picture scroll, in which Sugawara no Michizane is exiled to Dazaifu, and his anger turns into thunder and terrorizes the capital.
In this scene, the thunder god riding on a black cloud, with his hair in disarray, attacks the mansions of the aristocrats who live peacefully in the capital. If you look closely, you can see that countless lines of terrifying energy radiate from the black cloud along with lightning. It is an expression that is very similar to Leonardo's.
For now, let's remember this line drawing of energy emanating from a black cloud.
However, strictly speaking, this is not rain. It could also be a thunderstorm, but for now we will deny that.
From "Matsuzaki Tenjin Emaki"
The next material is the fairy tale "Isoho Monogatari (伊曾保物語),” published in 1659 (Manji 2), more than 300 years after the "Matsuzaki Tenjin Engi" emaki.
"Isoho Monogatari" is a fairy tale that was brought to Japan from Aesop's Fables and adapted into a Japanese tale. I don't have the space to go into that now, but I would like to focus on an illustration in the 27th volume of the second volume of this Manji edition, "The Making of the Kawarake Manki (かわらけまんきをおこす事),” held by the National Diet Library.
Manjibon "Isoho Monogatari", Volume 2, 27, "The Making of Kawarake Manki", National Diet Library
A black cloud hangs in the upper right, and the god of thunder is beating a drum in anger. On the ground, there is something lined up on a large tray, probably "kawarake (earthenware)". And countless "lines" are pouring down from the black cloud.
Could this be the radiation of the black cloud's energy, as in "Matsuzaki Tenjin Engi"?
I judge this to be "rain".
There is no other reason for this than the fact that the lines are long enough to reach the ground in the same direction from the upper right to the lower left, but also because no lightning is depicted. The first way to express the power of the god of thunder is through lightning. This is the case in "Matsuzaki Tenjin Engi", but it is also lightning in "Kitano Tenjin Engi", which is also a Tenjin faith legend.
If the "lines" in "The Tales of Isoho" represent rain, then "line drawings of rain" would have appeared in the history of Japanese painting in the 1600s. I believe that this method of expression is an evolution of the expression of the energy of black clouds, as seen in "Matsuzaki Tenjin Engi.”
This is a rough guess, but I believe that the style of "drawing rain with lines" was established in Japanese culture at the latest between 1600 and the mid-1700s.
The sensibility of the painters, engravers,
and printers of ukiyo-e woodblock prints
The reason I want to call Utagawa (Ando) Hiroshige the "painter of rain" is because, among all the ukiyo-e prints depicting rain, Hiroshige's rain is particularly delicate.
Hiroshige left behind a large series of pictures of famous places from his travels. Like Leonardo, some of these works were based on his imagination or on the predecessors' sketches, but "The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido," which made him famous among the public as a landscape painter following Katsushika Hokusai, depicted his first actual travels along the Tokaido in August 1832 (the third year of the Tenpo era), as part of the party that presented the shogunate with a horse at Hassaku Imperial Palace (八朔御馬献上*). Compared to his senior Hokusai, who handled the landscape with a unique sense of design, Hiroshige placed importance on the actual appearance.
【*Note】Hassaku is the first day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. It was customary to give gifts on this day. The Edo Shogunate presented the Emperor with a swift horse.
I believe that the fact that Hiroshige actually saw the rain is a major factor in conveying the emotion of rain that goes beyond symbolism, even though it is a line drawing.
(Left) "Tsuchiyama" from Katsushika Hokusai's "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Iseriya version)" Nakagami Collection
(Right) Katsushika Hokusai's "Night Rain at Karasaki"
(middle) "Evening Showers at Tadasugawahara, Famous Places of Kyoto" from the British Museum
(bottom) "Night Rain at Koizumi" from "Eight Views of Kanazawa"
I believe that Hiroshige's rain conveys an emotion of rain that goes beyond symbolism, even though it is a line drawing, largely because he has actually seen it.
And there is one more thing I would like to mention that has probably not been pointed out before.
That is, the consciousness of the engraver who carves the print and This is about the issue of skill.
It goes without saying that how faithfully the original is reproduced as a print depends on the skill of the carver and printer. But that is not all. The ability to read the original and the ability to be aware of it must also be an issue.
As I have already mentioned, there were several ukiyo-e artists who were Hiroshige's predecessors who used lines to depict rain. However, if you look closely and carefully at the "lines" of the rain, the lines of these predecessors seem to be quite different from Hiroshige's. In one word, they are "rough".
Torii Kiyohiro, Triptych (鳥居清広), c.1753-54, British Museum
(Top) Nishikawa Sukenobu (西河祐延), Ehon Tokiwagusa, 1730, Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Was his technique inferior to that of Hiroshige's carver? No, I don't think so. After all, isn't Kitagawa Utama's delicate carving of the woman's sideburns worthy of admiration? For such a divinely skilled carver, when it comes to rain, he does not go beyond the realm of "symbolism." In other words, he keeps the rainfall within a preconceived concept, and creates a scene based on that. He does not seem to pay much attention to the phenomenon of rain itself. I think that the original painting itself was of that level.
However, in the case of Hiroshige, it seems the engraver suddenly recognized an unprecedented aspect in the rain depicted in the prints. He had to carve the lines of the rain that went beyond the realm of symbolism.
Hiroshige's lines representing rain are thinner and more delicate than anyone else's, and in such large numbers that they cover the entire screen. And they are printed with light ink.
In comparing these prints with others, I would like to point out that behind these prints there was a keen awareness on the part of the engraver and printer of the "line depiction of rain."
Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川歌麿)
Western "Paintings of Rain"
Let's look again at "paintings of rain" in Western art.
How did they express rain, rather than the way Japanese culture uses lines?
First, there is "Rain, Steam, Speed" (1844) by the British painter William Turner (1775-1851), housed at the British Museum.
Rain is falling in a translucent whitish band from the upper right. Or on the left side of the painting, it is pouring down on the river and bridge in an arc from above. The title "Steam, Speed" is, of course, a reference to a steam locomotive. The Industrial Revolution began in England around 1760, and Turner was born in the midst of it, and by 1844 when he published "Rain, Steam, Speed," the Industrial Revolution had already spread throughout Europe. The Industrial Revolution was triggered by the invention of the steam engine, and the steam locomotive was its symbol. In other words, Turner turned his attention to the modernization of Europe with this work. However, it may not be easy to infer Turner's thoughts from this work, and I will not pursue that here.
William Turner, "Rain, Steam, Speed," 1844, The National Gallery, London
Next, let's look at two works by Gustave Caillebotte.
This is "A Parisian Street in the Rain." It is a very large piece, 212 x 276cm, owned by the Chicago Art Institute.
Looking closely, you'll notice something strange. There are no raindrops drawn at all. The light on the cobblestones certainly does look like a rainy day, and the atmosphere is expressed as if the distance is smoky.
Gustave Caillebotte, "Parisian Street, Rainy Day," 1877, Art Institute of Chicago
Before creating this work, Caillebotte made several sketches. He also created an oil painting with quick brushstrokes that is probably a study.
Looking at these, we can guess what Caillebotte was trying to achieve with this work.
Gustave Caillebotte, preparatory work for "Parisian Street, Rainy Day"
(above) "Parisian Street" 1877, Art Institute of Chicago
(bottom left) "Study for a Parisian Street" c.1877, private collection
(bottom right) "Parisian Street, Study for a Rainy Day" 1877, Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris
He did not focus on the phenomenon of rain, but on the shapes of umbrellas scattered in the wide, empty streets of Paris...I think he expressed anonymous people who have a tenuous relationship with the bustle of the city through their design-like arrangement.
As the title suggests, "Yale, The Effect of Rain" in the Indiana University Museum of Art focuses on the ripples of rain falling on the surface of the river. It is truly a design interest. Falling rain is not depicted. There is no sign of it in the air.
Gustave Caillebotte, The Yell, the Effect of Rain, 1875, Indiana University Museum of Art
(Reference)
Illustration by Brian Bolland for Alan Moore's Batman: The Killing Joke, 1988, DC Comics
Let's look at Claude Monet, who was a contemporary of Caillebotte. He painted several paintings of rain in 1886. He was clearly paying attention to the phenomenon of rainfall, and his paintings are similar to linear representations of rain.
Sometimes called the "painter of light," Monet was trying to capture the difference in the light of a rainy landscape, or the difference in the atmosphere caused by rain.
Looking more closely, Monet may have been thinking much more consciously than Caillebotte about "Can I express rain without painting the rain itself?" In his 1887 work, Rain on the Seine, Morning, the rain that had fallen diagonally through the space up to the previous year is not depicted. The tumultuous waves on the surface of the Seine, the faint rustling of the weeping willows, and the difference in the color of the light near and far. Perhaps it is only through the tumultuous waves that we are able to discern a "rainy day."
Claude Monet
(top left) "Rain on Belle Île" 1866
(top right) "Plouyer Étretat" 1886, in the collection of the National Museum of Norway
(bottom left) "Cliffs at Pourville, in the Rain" 1896
(bottom right) "Morning in the Rain on the Seine" 1897
Let's take a look at another contemporary, Camus Pissarro.
This is "Boulevard Montmartre After the Rain," in a private collection. As the title "After the Rain" suggests, this is not a scene taken during the rain. The depiction of the light on the wet street is magnificent.
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) "Rainy Boulevard Montmartre Afternoon" 1870 Private collection
(Left) Utagawa Hiroshige "Shower on a Large Bridge and a Taketake Bridge"
(Righ) Vincent van Gogh "The Rainy Bridge, after Hiroshige" 1887 Van Gogh Museum
Van Gogh, who was a contemporary of the French Impressionists, famously copied Hiroshige's "Shower on the Great Bridge Atake" in oil painting. Putting aside the issue of Van Gogh abandoning Impressionism and pursuing spatial expression with oil paints, he was probably inspired by the originality of Hiroshige's composition. It is true that the compositions of ukiyo-e artists from the end of the Edo period, and not only Hiroshige's, have an originality of a standing perspective not seen in European paintings. However, what the common people of Edo felt when they saw Hiroshige's painting was something Van Gogh would never have imagined. It is something that would never be understood unless you know the structure of the city of Edo at that time.
The “Oohasi atake no yudachi” was the entrance and exit to the northeast of Edo. People crossed this bridge on their pilgrimage to Narita-san. It was the bridge that said goodbye to Edo, and also the bridge that marked the final entrance to Edo. What was on that side of Edo...?
There were rows of brothels lined up. It was time to say goodbye to Edo. The long journey began. The men who were preparing for their journey would enjoy a night's pleasure here... embracing a cheap prostitute before setting off on their journey. Or they would embracing a woman here as if to wash away the dirt of their long journey. The Japanese say, "Forget your shame on the road," but perhaps they hold onto a hedonistic attitude to the very limit.
What the Edo people felt when they saw "Shower at Ohashi Bridge Atake" was not the unusual composition of the landscape painting. Moreover, it was a shower. Plunged by a sudden rain, some men left Edo, casting aside the cold-heartedness of the prostitute they were embracing, or perhaps they hunch their shoulders and jogged off, saying, "Tch, I'm almost entering Edo." Either way, these are the feelings of the Edo people that Van Gogh could not grasp. "Atake" means “emptiness, temporary or fleeting” or "cold-heartedness." Or it means "coquettishness"... a seductive mood.
I would like to state the above from the perspective of comparative culture.
Incidentally, it was on July 27, 1890 that Van Gogh shot himself with a pistol. He died on the 29th. "Landscape in the Rain at Auvers," which he painted that July, has probably never been pointed out as being influenced by ukiyo-e. The reason I point out the influence of ukiyo-e in this work, which is not a copy of an ukiyo-e, is because the rain is depicted using lines. In fact, there are only two paintings of rain in all of Van Gogh's oil paintings: "Japonaiseries, Bridge in the Rain (by Hiroshige)" and "Landscape in the Rain at Auvers." The rain in "Landscape in the Rain at Auvers" is painted with thin black lines that run uninterruptedly from the top to the bottom of the painting, slashing slightly horizontally. In his later years, Van Gogh entrusted the recovery of his vitality to the yellow sun. Not only is the painting of rain unique among Van Gogh's works, but a black crow is flying low in the rain falling on the yellow wheat field. Is this a real scene that Van Gogh saw, or is it a symbol that appears from time to time in his works? I won't speculate beyond that, but I will point out the influence of Ukiyo-e in this black line drawing of rain.
Now, Shortly after the French Impressionists, there was an American painter who painted rain-soaked streets. His name was Frederic Childe Hassam (1859-1935).
Like Pissarro, his rainy scenes are also skillfully created with the effect of wet light on the streets. However, he does not depict falling rain. In Rainy Night (1895), housed in the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, rain is depicted as lines in the central space between buildings, but we should also note that the raindrops hitting the surfaces of umbrellas and the sides of carriages are depicted as white smoke.
As I will explain later, wet streets are actually used in many ways to create nighttime street scenes in movies. The scenes where the moonlight shines on the shining water and the red and blue colors of neon signs blend together are very cinematic. The art staff sprays water even when it is not raining.
Frederick Childe Hassam
(above) "A Rainy Day, Columbus Street, Boston" 1885
(below left) "Rainstorm, Union Square" 1890
(below right) "Rainy Night" 1895
"Rain" in Contemporary Art
What is "rain" in contemporary art?
David Hockney (1937-), a popular British artist who has been living and working in America for many years, is now 81 years old. His 2003 work "Saturday Rain" (bottom left) is a pop painting of California rain falling on a wooden deck painted blue, which is very American, with bright light and colors without any shadows. It is a sophisticated and light-hearted painting. It is impressive that his cartoon-like expressions do not fall into vulgarity.
I only know that he is an American painter born in 1972, but I also know Hernan Bass's "Eating Roses in the Rain" (center) and "My Mood" (right).
Rain is truly expressed with lines, but it can be said to be a "symbolic" expression. And by depicting these slightly thick rod-like rain drops sensuously, but quantitatively, and with careful attention to their placement on the canvas, he has arrived at a pop sensibility and a new, unique expression as contemporary art.
David Hockney (left) "Saturday Rain"
Herman Bass (center) "Eating Rotes in the Rain
(right) "My Mood"
I don't know much about Stas Orlowski's background. His work "Midnight Storm" (left) was made in 2007. It was painted with ink on paper pasted on canvas. I feel the influence of ukiyo-e.
I feel like placing Ando Hiroshige's "Eight Views of Omi: Night Rain at Karasaki" (right) next to this painting. In "Night Rain at Karasaki," rain is pouring straight down from the black clouds in the sky onto the harbor with its shrine forest, using only shades of ink and indigo, just like a sumi-e painting. The rain is expressed by drawing countless thin black lines like a curtain. The design sense is almost like modern abstract painting. As the title suggests, it is night rain. No one other than Ando Hiroshige has ever painted rain like this. His enthusiasm, talent, sensibility, and skill are truly amazing.
I cannot say for sure that the contemporary painter Stas Orlowski's "Midnight Storm" was influenced by "Night Rain at Karasaki," but I feel that it is close to true.
(left) Stas Orlowski "Midnight Storm"
(right) Ando Hiroshige "Eight Views of Omi : Night Rain in Karasaki"
Of course, there are other paintings of rain among contemporary Western paintings. In fact, in recent years, a great many "rain paintings" have been seen on the Internet. The artists are artists who aim to sell their works on the Internet, as well as artists who could be described as amateurs. Most of their "rain paintings" express rain in linear forms. They are, to put it bluntly, "popular" paintings, with colorful umbrellas and lovers getting drenched in the rain.
One artist, Ananda Das, who was born and works in the monsoon region of Kolkata, India, depicts a rickshaw man in the rain, a sight he has been watching since he was a child. His rain would not necessarily be described as emotional.
Ananda Das (left, right) "Rickshaw Man in the Rain, Kolkata"
So far, I have spoken about the "expression of rain." I have seen artists like Monet who put a lot of effort into capturing the changes in light in a space caused by rain.
By the way, there is another important thing involved in depicting rain. That is the issue of "time."
The expression of rain and the issue of time
The movement of a single raindrop is a phenomenon that includes continuous time and appears to our eyes as a "line." It is different from "snow." There are many paintings of snow in Japan and in Europe and the United States. Snow is of course a phenomenon that includes time, but it is possible to express the scene of falling snowflakes as if time had stopped. However, this is difficult with rain.
Turner's "Rain, Steam, Velocity" can be said to be a bold attempt to depict "time," as the title specifically mentions "velocity" along with rain. Turner's style of painting, known as "hazy," could be said to refer to "time." If the issue of time prevented paintings of rain from appearing in Western art history, it may be said that this historical trend was pursuing "realism." On the other hand, Hiroshige's rain is a "symbol" that beautifully conveys the appearance of falling rain. We are given the "illusion" of seeing rain through the action of symbolism, and it is not the actual meteorological reality that the realism of Western culture pursued.
There is an interesting comparison of the depictions of rain by contemporary Europeans and Japanese. The "Continuation of Bigot's Japanese Sketches" (Iwanami Bunko, edited by Shimizu Isao) contains sketches by the French painter Georges-Ferdinand Bigot (1860-1927), who visited Japan in 1882. Among them is a piece titled "Pastoral: Paul and Virginie" (next page, left), which depicts a young Japanese man and woman holding umbrellas and pulling up the hems of their kimonos around their waists. A modern Japanese person would either frown at the indecency or burst out laughing at the sight of young Misora's bare thighs, trying to avoid getting wet. However, in 1887, when this painting was created, it was probably a very common custom.
This painting of the couple in the rain depicts shadows that clearly show that the road is wet at their feet.
By the way, Shimizu, the editor of this book, lists Okano Sakae's "Evening Shower" (right), painted in 1908, as a reference on another page. In fact, Shimizu chose this painting because it depicts a baby carriage, but I am more interested in the depiction of the "rain." Even though Bigot depicts rain, it is clear from the umbrella that the subject is holding, but Okano depicts rain through lines. Those thin lines are just like the Japanese specialty handed down by Hiroshige. We may do well to remember the difference between these two depictions.
(right) Okano Sakae "Evening Shower"
Capturing rain with realism. This was realized in the history of Western painting with the Photorealism (Superrealism) movement that emerged in the United States in the 1980s. It is a rare example, but the fact that such a work has appeared is not to be overlooked.
The work in question is Variety Photoplays (see below) by Davis Cone, a painter born in 1950. The work is painted with acrylic paint on canvas and depicts a street after rain as dusk draws near, a building with a red neon sign reading Variety Photoplays, a Mustang parked in front of it, and the city lights reflecting off the rain-soaked road surface. In astonishing detail, the Mustang is covered in countless raindrops, revealing that it has just rained.
People often say that a work "looks like a photograph," and this painting, Variety Photoplays, is indeed photograph-like.
This is because the artist used a projector to enlarge photographs he had taken on the street and used them to copy the sketch, then used opaque acrylic paints to outline the images while looking at a number of slides through a magnifying glass, and then used an airbrush to finish off the fine details.
The technique of photorealism is to use slide projections of photographs to create a work of art.
I don't have the space here to go into the origins of this kind of realism in modern America.
Anyway, if I may say that the Western pursuit of realism failed to capture rain, which is an issue of time...I will explain this later, but I think it may be because they left it to the medium of film. And, even if it is not the rain that is falling now, at least the extremely delicate expression of the traces of rain has finally been created through the use of photography.
On the other hand, Japan's symbolic rain depicted with lines has succeeded in fully expressing the Japanese sentiment towards rain, but in fact it may be said that the realism of approaching the reality of the phenomenon has been lost throughout the history of art.
However, small raindrops reach the earth from the sky in a continuous stream of time. This is what they look like "lines." Painting is an art that has been established by capturing a certain moment on a two-dimensional plane. In other words, it was established by stopping time. It was not possible to capture continuous time.
The picture scrolls of Japanese culture were an excellent art that barely expressed time through a succession of scenes from moment to moment, and in a sense challenged time on a two-dimensional plane. One can imagine flip books, which are a kind of adaptation of this. However, the expression of rain in time was not produced. Therefore, it can be said that the "linear expression of rain" in ukiyo-e, combined with the imagination of the viewer, was an attempt to arrive at an expression of continuous time.
The task of depicting time is beyond the reach of the art of painting, but one novelist, knowing this fact, spitefully demanded that it be depicted as an illustration for his novel. This was Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), the author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." When he was officially publishing "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," he felt that he had to ask a professional illustrator to do the illustrations, rather than the ones he had been drawing himself up until then. So he asked John Tenniel to do it. Carroll's request at that time was to depict the scene in which the Cheshire Cat, who had been talking to Alice from atop a tree branch, disappears like smoke, grinning wildly into the air.
He set the artist the difficult task of depicting the "sound" of laughter, the "temporal" of an object disappearing like smoke, and the act of disappearing, in other words, something that cannot be seen. His question was, "How about it? Can you do it?"
Lewis Carroll was a mathematician by trade. As a mathematician, he may have been throwing down the gauntlet to painters who painted lies as we have seen on a two-dimensional plane.
Anyway, even though it is a visual art, it is possible for film. But it is an absolutely impossible proposition for painting.
Poor Tenniel. How did he fulfill this nasty request? I'm sure you all know. He divided it into frames like a flip book. He painted it in frames of time, like frames of film.
It is unclear whether Carroll was satisfied with this method, but poor Tenniel probably had no other choice. Today, with computers created by combining mathematics and electronic physics, this can be achieved with artistic talent and image processing.
In this way, the Cheshire Cat, which disappears into the air like smoke, and "rain" are the same problem in painting.
John Tenniel "Cheshire Cat"
The Movies and Rain
You may have noticed that rain is a perfect material for cinematic expression. The life of film is not static. In other words, continuous time is connected to a new continuous time by a leap in time through montage.
Rain and wind are the most suitable elements for cinematic expression.
Director Akira Kurosawa was a filmmaker who was fully aware of this. The heavy rain in "Rashomon." The battle scene in "Seven Samurai." "Stray Dog," where it is raining when Toshiro Mifune, a detective whose gun has been stolen, visits a woman he thinks might be the culprit.
Kurosawa Akira (top left) "Stray Dogs (野良犬)“
(bottom left) "Throne of Blood (蜘蛛巣城)“
(right) "Seven Samurai (七人の侍)“
Akira Kurosawa (above) "Rashomon (羅生門)“
(below) "Rhapsody in August (八月の狂詩曲)“
However, just because a camera is pointed at real rain, it does not necessarily result in a wonderful rain that will be captured on film. It is well known that the rain in "Rashomon" was created by mixing it with ink.
Incidentally, in "Kagemusha (影武者),” when the generals holding a military council in the castle tower look out the window, the wind that blows in stirs their hair at the sides. That wind is of course artificial. It's a wonderful sensation.
The Magnificent Seven, a western adaptation of "Seven Samurai" by John Sturges, is set in the dry, dusty State of Mexico, so of course there are no rain scenes. However, there are many excellent rain scenes in Western films as well. "Rain" (1932) by Lewis Milestone. The rain in "Rebecca" (1940) by Alfred Hitchcock.
The rain in "Rebecca." ...After getting married in Monte Carlo, as soon as the car pulls into Mandalay House, it begins to rain heavily.
This work has a very interesting structure. It is sandwiched between "water" and "fire," and "rain" begins to fall just as the female protagonist becomes deeply entangled in the painful memories of "water (the sea)," which are a psychological obstacle for the male protagonist. The "rain" is a visual foreshadowing that symbolizes the miserable pain it causes to her heart. Mandalay House burns down in the end. "Fire" is a symbol of purification.
And then there's Bicycle Thieves (1948) by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. The rain scene in this film is also interesting. A father and son are caught in the rain while searching for their stolen bicycle. A group of monks rush in between the father and son, who are sheltering from the rain in a miserable mood, and start chatting happily and lively.
Bicycle Thieves, 1948, directed by Vittorio De Sica
Singin' in the Rain, a musical co-directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly. Death in Paris, directed by Richard Brooks. Rain in New Orleans, directed by Sydney Pollack. The wonderful opening scene of The Lisbon Express, directed by Jean-Paul Melville. The French film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg doesn't have a rain scene in the main story, but the opening shot has an unusual perspective of rain falling directly on colorful umbrellas walking down the street.
There was also a rain scene in The Collector, directed by William Wyler. Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982) is a science fiction film, but acid rain continues to fall on a futuristic city. And Boris Yashin's 1974 film Hard Rain. The freezing rain on the day of Mozart's burial in Milos Forman's "Amadeus."
There are so many rain sceanes in the movies to remember.
(Top left) Singin' in the Rain, co-directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952 (USA)
(Top right) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, by Jacques Demy, 1964 (France)
(Middle left) The Lisbon Express, directed by Jean-Paul Melville, 1972 (France)
(Middle right) Hard Rain, directed by Boris Yashin, 1974 (Russia)
(Bottom) The Classic, directed by Kwak Jae-yeon, 2003 (Korea)
About Umbrellas
William Deterlet's 1937 film Zola won three Academy Awards and two New York Film Critics Circle Awards. In it, an umbrella seller appears calling out, "Umbrellas! Umbrellas!" on the rainy streets of Paris in the 1870s. Also, on a rainy day during the Zola trial in relation to the Dreyfus affair, there was a rare scene in front of the courthouse, where the crowd was packed so tightly that it was filled with umbrellas.
"The Life of Zola" directed by William DeTerle, 1937
And Gene Kelly's "Singin' in the Rain" is an inside look at the Hollywood film industry at the transitional period from silent films to talkies, and there is a famous scene in which Gene Kelly dances in the rain without an umbrella, with a premonition of love in his heart. Three passersby appear in this scene, wearing raincoats but without umbrellas. One of them is a policeman, so it's natural that he doesn't have an umbrella, but the other two men are walking around soaking wet.
Singin' in the Rain, co-directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952
In fact, Hollywood, including Los Angeles, is a place where it doesn't rain much, and the late film critic Nagaharu Yodogawa wrote in his essay that if you get caught in a sudden shower in the American West, such as Los Angeles, and try to buy an umbrella, you won't find any for sale. Since it rarely rains in that area, people probably don't mind getting wet from a sudden shower.
In Los Angeles, it rarely rains, so people probably don't use umbrellas, but in rainy England, there is an image of a gentleman wearing a bowler hat and carrying a bat umbrella as a walking stick, but this image seems to have come about since the 20th century.
A Brief History of Umbrellas
Umbrellas were invented 4,000 years ago. They were for ceremonies or as parasols. There are traces of this in the origin of the English word “umbrella”. That is, umbra...means to shade the sun.
(Top left) The pre-ceremony of the Kyoto Aoi Festival (Kamo Festival), the Gokage Festival, Kirishiba Shinto Ritual, Tokai TV
(Top right) Hanauma Festival at Gonomiya Shrine, Kiso Town, Nagano Prefecture, Tokai TV
(Bottom left) From "Kibi no Otodo Nittou Emaki"
(Bottom right) From "Choju Jinbutsu Giga"
(Top left) "Edo Meisho Zue: Kasumigaseki" by Saito Ichizaemon and illustrated by Hasegawa Settan
(Top right) "Fujiku Azuma no Nishiki" by Torii Kiyonaga
(Bottom left) "Gaikoku-jinbutu Toga: England" by Utagawa Kira
(Bottom right) Artist unknown, Nagasaki Picture, late 1700s, British Museum
The Chinese were the first to use umbrellas as rain umbrellas.
When traveller Jonas Hanway began using umbrellas in London in the 18th and 19th centuries, people looked at him with curiosity, wondering why a man would use such an umbrella.
The first "umbrella shop" selling parasols and umbrellas was James Smith & Sons, which opened in London in 1830. This means that in Europe, at least men, were okay with getting wet in the rain until the 19th century.
Umbrella circumstances may be slightly different in Britain and America, but as Japanese people, we tend to think, "Oh my, how sad that man is walking around soaking wet," when we see that scene in "Singin' in the Rain." However, when we learn that this is actually a normal style, we can see that proper customs were being respected in such a small detail.
Victorian inventions
It rains often and there is a rainy season called “Nyubai (the beginning of the rainy season), so it is natural that there is a difference in emotions between Japanese people and people in dry regions. In Japanese, we say "wet and soaked" to express intense affection. Of course, this does not mean getting wet in the rain, but if a man and woman who wont to make love, the feeling of being "wet and soaked" naturally arises. There is also the word "aiaigasa" (sharing an umbrella). In yakuza films, a man and a woman, or two men, often share an umbrella in the rain or snow to express desperate, helpless emotions.
(Top) Kato Tai's "Hi-peony Gambler Hanafuda Game" 1969
(Middle) Saeki Kiyoshi's "Showa Zankyoden Karajishi Botan" 1966
(Bottom) Saeki Kiyoshi's "Showa Zankyoden Torn Umbrella" 1972
From Hiraide Kenjiro's "Tokyo Fuzokushi" 1901
Hiraide Kenjiro's "Tokyo Fuzokushi (東京風俗誌)“ vividly depicts the everyday life of the Meiji era, and the above image shows the types of umbrellas, which in turn indicate social class. It is amazing how many words related to umbrellas or hats there are in Japanese culture. Is it possible that there are no such diverse examples in other cultures and languages?
List of Japanese umbrellas
【Name by material】
菅笠、藺笠、竹笠、檜笠、藤笠、三島菅笠、山菅笠、番傘、絹傘（衣笠、蓋）、ビニール傘
【Name by manufacturing method】
編笠(Amigasa)、段笠(Dangasa)、組笠(Kumigasa)、網代笠(Ajirogasa)、塗笠(Nurigasa)、張笠(Harigasa)、綾藺笠(Ayaigasa)、
【Name by shape】
円盤形（Disc type: 平笠;Hiragasa、菅一文字笠;Suge-ichimonnji-gasa）、円錐形（Cone: 尖笠;Togarigasa、雪滑笠;Yukisuberigasa）、円錐台形(Cone Trapezoid: 帽子形;Hat-shaped、光円形;Light circular、褄折形;Foldover(端折笠;Hashiorigasa)、桔梗笠;Kikyogasa、菅小笠;Sugekogasa（small suge hatt）、ざんざら笠;Zanzaragasa、市女笠;Ichimegasa（a fan-shaped protrusion in the center）、三度笠;Sndogasa（a hat that covers the face deeply, used by SAndohikyaku postman）、饅頭笠;Manjyugasa（a shallow, rounded top）、蝙蝠傘;Komorigasa（Weatern umbrella）、折り畳み傘;Oritatamigasa (Folding umbrella)、ジャンプ傘;Jyanpugasa (Jump umbrella)
【Name by use】
雨笠;Amagasa (for Rain)、陽笠;Higasa (for Sunshade)、花笠;Hanagasa (Festival hat with gorgeous flotter decorations)、陣笠;Jingasa (battle hat)、騎射笠;Kishagasa (aechery hat)、田植笠;Tauegasa (for rice planting)、道中笠;Docyugasa (for travel. Sandogasa, etc.)
【Name by place of origin】
難波菅笠;Naniwa-sugegasa、近江菅笠;Omi-sugegasa、越前菅笠;Echizen-sugegasa、加賀笠;Kaga-gasa (Used by woman of townspeople and nuns)
【Name by design】
渋蛇の目傘;Jyanomegasa、浅蛇の目傘;Asajyanomegasa、深蛇の目傘;Fukajyanomegasa*、奴傘;Yakkogasa、大黒傘;Daikokugasa、絵日傘;Ehigasa
*Note: “Jyanome” means Snake’s eye but that is design which large navy blue circle is drawn on the umbrella, and depending on how the paper is paste but there are shallow and deep.
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