Tora's Rain at Oiso

Fine slanting lines are drawn across the whole picture to show a heavy downpour. The travelers wear mino (raincoats woven of straw), and even the person on horseback proceeds with head bowed. The sky is shaded gray, and the distant sea sinks into deep indigo.

Tora's Rain refers to the rain that falls around the 28th day of the fifth lunar month. It has been handed down that Soga Juro was killed on this day and that the tears of his lover Tora Gozen became rain. Hiroshige expresses the story attached to a place on the post station through his depiction of the weather.

The composition divides in character between left and right. On the left spread a calm sea and pines on the beach, and on the right the houses of the post station, a twisted pine, and a mountain overlap. The mountain visible at right is Mount Koma, so we are seeing the mountain from the Hiratsuka print from the opposite side.

The stake at the entrance of the post station, the depth of the row of houses, and even the shading of the muddy road are carefully drawn within the darkness of a rainy day. An effect like shadows reflected on the wet road conveys the weight of the unending rain. On the beach at left, something like rice straw piled up in the rain can also be seen.