Utagawa Toyokuni II (二代目歌川豊国) (artist 1777 – 1835)
Night Rain at Ōyama (大山夜雨): View of the Summit above the former Fudō Temple (従前不動頂上之図) - from Eight Views of Famous Places (名所八景) - Ōyama ya-u: Juzen Fudō chojo no kei - Meisho hakkei - from the second edition
ca 1833 – 1834
14.75 in x 10 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signature: Toyokuni hitsu
Publisher: Iseya Rihei (Marks 01-122)
Metropolitan Museum of Art
British Museum
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Adachi Museum of Art
Royal Ontario Museum
Google maps
Art Institute of Chicago - an example of the first edition
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art
Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Culture History
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium (via Cultural Japan)
The Chester Beatty Library
Honolulu Museum of Art - 20th century reproduction
National Diet Library
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College
Carnegie Museum of Art - they own two copies
Victoria and Albert Museum (via Meisterdrucke.us.com)
Rhode Island School of Design The curatorial files at the Metropolitan Museum of Art say of this print:
"Utagawa Toyoshige, student of the first Toyokuni (1769–1825), succeeded to his master's name as Toyokuni II in 1825. In Utagawa genealogy, Toyoshige and the famous Hiroshige are something like cousins. The most famous print in the series "Eight Famous Views of Kanagawa," set west of Edo, is Night Rain at Ōyama. Mount Ōyama, the ancient center of mountain asceticism where the guardian king Fudō Myōō was enshrined, became a popular pilgrimage site during the eighteenth century. Prayers for rain were offered there, and it became standard to depict this place in the rain. The mysterious appearance of the mountain at night, with Mount Fuji visible in the distance, is achieved by rendering it without outline, in pointed contrast to the sharply delineated torrents in varying tones."
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The curatorial files at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts it says: "In the first edition the series title is written in standard script; in the second edition, it is in semi-cursive script, and there are some other changes in the blocks." Using this information as a guide, it would appear that the copy in the Art Institute of Chicago has a copy of the first edition. The example in Boston is from the second edition.
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Christie's auction house sold a copy of this print on March 25, 2003. They entitled it as 'Oyama yau, Tomomae Fudo chojo no zu (Night rain, Oyama, view of Tomomae Fudo Peak)...'.
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There is another copy of this print in black and white in Traditional Woodblock Prints of Japan by Seiichiro Takahashi, 1973 edition, p. 128.
The text on page 127 says: "In the print market today such landscape scenes of his as Oyama Yau (Evening Rain on Mount Oyama), which appears in Figure 137 and is from the set Meisho Hakkei command higher prices than his prints of beautiful woman. This print is said to have been much influenced by Hokusai's Red Fuji..."
According to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, "In the first edition the series title is written in standard script; in the second edition, it is in semi-cursive script, and there are some other changes in the blocks." This example would therefore be from the second edition. The Chicago Art Institute has an example from the first edition (2nd image above).
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A personal point of view
From this writer's point of view, this print by Toyokuni II is one of the greatest images produced during the Edo period, bar none. Everyone knows Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa-oki nami-ura 神奈川沖浪裏), otherwise known as 'The Great Wave', from ca. 1831 by Hokusai, which is undeniably and rightfully considered the most iconic of Japanese woodblock prints, but only a few people by comparison are familiar with Night Rain at Ōyama (大山夜雨) by Toyokuni II. While understandably 'the Great Wave' has something undeniably powerful and yet intangible about it, so too does 'The Night Rain' created by a far less known artist. In fact, not only is Toyokuni II far less known, but he has long suffered the slings and arrows of a long list of dismissive art historians, many of whom I respect enormously. Not only is Toyokuni II ranked in the same league as Hokusai, but he isn't even considered to be counted as being on the same level as Toyokuni I, his teacher and father-in-law, nor is he as respected as Toyokuni III, one of his chief rivals. Now there is a tangled web of resentment and jealousy, if there ever was one.
And yet, all anyone who can look at this print, Night Rain at Ōyama dispassionately and still state that it is not a masterpiece worthy of our respect, is not living in the same world as I am. Flatly stated: it may not be in the same breathless category as 'The Great Wave', but in my opinion is isn't far behind and deserves our unadulterated appreciation that any truly great work of art should command of us.
My thoughts: Jerry Vegder, written in the wee hours of the morning of September 14, 2024.
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Illustrated:
1) in color in Japanese Prints: Images of the Floating World, Barry Davies Oriental Art, #63, illustrated on p. 87.
2) in color in The Printer's Eye: Ukiyo-e from the Grabhorn Collection, Asian Art Museum, 2013, #127, p. 145, text on page 188.
Laura Allen wrote: "Toyokuni II's memorable 'Night Rain over Ōyama: View of the Summit of the Former Fudō Temple" is one of a set of eight prints depicting famous places in Kanagawa Prefecture. Mt. Ōyama lies at the southwest end of the Tanzawa mountain range, where frequent rain and mist conferred on it the nickname "Rainfall Mountain" (Afuriyama). An ancient sacred site, Ōyama has both a Buddhist temple at its base, and a Shinto shrine atop the summit. Steep stone stairways lead from Ōyama-dera, dedicated to the esoteric Buddhist deity Fudō Myōō, to Afuri Jinja, where the Shinto deity Sekison Daigongen is enshrined.
A popular pilgrimage site throughout the Edo period, the mountain was thronged with religious devotees during the three-month period each year when climbing to the peak was permitted. In the print, Ōyama is shown in the midst of a torrential downpour. A few hardy pilgrims have already ascended to a point above the rooftop of the temple gate: farther up a few others, led by a many carrying a symbolic wooden sword (ōkitachi), climb toward the lower shrine. The main shrine buildings are just visible at the top of the mountain, high above. At the left, shrouded in the mist, is a familiar conical peak of Mt. Fuji."
3) In a small black and white detail in The Sakai Collection: Ukiyo-e-gaku by Gankow Sakai, 1978, p. 94, #461.
4) in color in Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections: British Museum III, supervised by Muneshige Narazaki, Kodansha Ltd, 1988, #39.
5) in color in 原色浮世絵大百科事典 (Genshoku Ukiyoe Daihyakka Jiten), vol. 3, p. 121, #296.
6) in color in International Exchange Exhibition: Japan and the West in Japanese Prints, Kanagawa Prefecture International Exchange Executive Committee, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 1982, p. 18, #46.
7) in black and white in Traditional Woodblock Prints of Japan by Seiichiro Takahashi, 1973 edition, p. 128.
8) in color in Japanische Holzschnitte aus dem Nationalmuseum in Krakau, Edition Cantz, 1990, number 75, page 103.
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This example was exhibited April 2 - August 28, 2022 in Learning from the Japanese: The International Block Print Renaissance at the Wichita Art Museum.
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There are other copies of this print in the Worcester Art Museum, Oberlin College and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
landscape prints (fūkeiga 風景画) (genre)
Iseya Rihei (伊勢屋利兵衛) (publisher)
Mount Fuji (富士山) (genre)