Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake (Ohashi Atake no Yudachi), No. 58 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

One can almost hear the crack of thunder as the roiling black clouds burst into sheets of heavy rain, scattering the huddled shapes on the bridge below. On the blue-gray expanse of the Sumida River, a solitary boatman poles his log raft downstream past the area known as Atake, impervious to the storm. This is a yūdachi—an "evening descent" of the thunder god—a summer rain in which the heavens suddenly darken late in the day, releasing torrents of rain in large drops that then quickly clear. The undisputed masterpiece of the series, this print was accorded the honor of a copy in oil by Vincent van Gogh, now in Amsterdam.