52 AMAM.OBERLIN.EDU NIGHT RAIN In the original Eight Views of Xiāoxiāng by Sòng Dí, the theme of Night Rain on Xiāoxiāng carried significant political symbolism. The area was associated with exile and the unjust punishment of loyal officials and political dissenters. The night rain motif emphasized the sense of melancholy and the suffering of these displaced scholars, reflecting the tensions between moral integrity and political survival in imperial China. Unlike the symbolism of exile, Japanese interpretations of Night Rain typically focusedmore on natural cycles, religious significance, and emotional resonance with the landscape. These themes appear in accompanying poems and the visual elements of prints like Hiroshige’s Night Rain at Karasaki and Toyokuni II’s Night Rain at Ōyama, where rain creates atmospheric effects that enhance the spiritual and emotional qualities of the scenes. UtagawaHiroshige I 初代目歌川広重 (Japanese, 1797–1858) Night Rain at Karasaki, fromthe series Eight Views of Ōmi, 1834 Color woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper MaryA. AinsworthBequest, 1950.1057 This mysterious vision is of the famous Karasaki Shrine and its sacred pine tree, introduced earlier. Here, the tree dominates the composition, a dark grey form reaching in all directions. The shrine’s torii gate and the roofs of shrine buildings can be seen at the right, emerging from the tree’s spreading branches. The length of these limbs required support, particularly from heavy snowfall —you can see the many vertical posts (yotsudake 四つ竹) that gardeners use to prop them up. However, they almost disappear amidst the straight, thin vertical lines that represent a torrential rainfall. The poem in the upper left is evocative: Elsewhere will they talk of the music of the evening breeze that has made the pine of Karasaki famed; for the voice of the wind is not heard through the sound of the rain in the night. —Uncredited translation, Metropolitan Museum of Art, metmuseum.org
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