# Night Rain at the Double-Shelf Stand, from the series Eight Parlor Views (Zashiki hakkei)

**Suzuki Harunobu** (Japanese, 1725–1770)  
ca. 1766  
Woodblock print (first edition); ink and colors on paper, medium-sized print (chuban)  
11 1/4 x 8 in. (28.6 x 20.3 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, JP698. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/37145).

## About this work

The Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers, a classic theme of Chinese and Japanese landscape painting, are wittily transposed into a domestic interior in Harunobu’s series Eight Parlor Views; here the ‘night rain’ of the classic theme is evoked beside a double-shelved stand used for tea. Such clever parodies, known as mitate, delighted the educated townspeople of Edo. This is an impression of the first edition, made around 1766, just as Harunobu and his collaborators were pioneering full-colour printing.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Suzuki Harunobu designed this in about 1766, aged about 31. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Colour woodblock print.** In Japan these were a team effort. The artist drew the design, a carver cut it into cherry-wood blocks, one block for each colour, and a printer brushed on the pigment and rubbed each sheet by hand. Full-colour prints of this kind were called nishiki-e, “brocade pictures”, from the 1760s on.
- **Chūban.** A medium Japanese print size, about 26 × 19 cm, roughly half an ōban.

### [Suzuki Harunobu](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/suzuki-harunobu)

Japanese, 1725–1770

Harunobu was the first great master of the full-colour woodblock picture, or nishiki-e, which developed in Edo around 1765 out of privately commissioned calendar designs. Working mostly in the small chūban format, he favoured slender, youthful figures in intimate scenes, often with subtle allusions to classical poetry. In the few years before his death he produced hundreds of designs, and his delicate style shaped the work of a generation.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Prints
- Culture: Japan
- The artist was about 31
- Real size: about 11 × 8 in (29 × 20 cm). The 8 × 10 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 18th century
- Movement: [Ukiyo-e](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/ukiyo-e)
- Subjects: Boys, Women, Tea
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/875.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/875/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/night-rain-at-the-double-shelf-stand-from-the-series-eight-p-met-37145).