The Yamabushi Gorge in Mimasaka Province

This print is from an ambitious series depicting more than sixty famous places in Japan. Hiroshige began the series in 1853 and completed sixty-nine prints in four years. Here, he depicts a violent rainstorm on a steep mountainside in the Yamabushi Gorge.

A boatman is maneuvering his raft in the flooding river. On the bank, a man in a raincoat and hat labors against the wind as he goes on his way. Another man is chasing in vain his flying hat, torn off by a gust of wind. The power of the rainstorm is suggested by the diagonal lines, representing rain driven by wind.