Samidare Arakawa Early summer rain at Arakawa 1940 by Hiroshi Yoshida Kamisaka Sekka sun-bleached backdrop that makes the

sun-bleached backdrop that makes the ordinary look strange and the familiar look remote

a quiet tension that gives the work its enduring power

Ichinokura

and a depth of colour that remains vivid more than a century after its creation

Samidare Arakawa Early summer rain at Arakawa 1940 by Hiroshi Yoshida Kamisaka Sekka sun-bleached backdrop that makes theSamidare Arakawa, created in 1940, depicts the early summer rain at the Arakawa river with the atmospheric restraint that defines Yoshida's finest work. A muted, overcast palette captures the particular quality of Japanese early summer light filtered through rain, while the river and its surroundings are rendered in flat, layered tones that draw equally on Western landscape tradition and the woodblock aesthetic of shin hanga. The effect is meditative,