Details

Chiura Obata’s Spring Rain, Berkeley California is a rare intersection of traditional Japanese woodblock technique and American urban landscape, rendered with lyrical immediacy and sensitivity. Created in 1930 during a fertile period in Obata’s career, the work captures a fleeting moment along Berkeley’s bustling Shattuck Avenue. Rain streaks down the sky in translucent veils, rendering a dramatic, almost cinematic atmosphere as pedestrians huddle beneath umbrellas, and a neon sign glows above, casting modernity’s strange light across a drenched sidewalk.

A master of atmospheric tone and painterly woodblock execution, Obata renders urban weather not with stoic realism but with emotional charge—the clouds are voluminous and expressive, their grays tinged with pale blues and soft ochres. The iconic Coit Tower can be seen in the misty background, anchoring the scene in Californian geography while the wash-like vertical rain lines and spontaneous contour drawing suggest the spontaneity of sumi-e ink traditions. The row of cars tightly packed along the curb subtly asserts Obata’s embrace of modern life—an artist unafraid to show the bustling, technological realities of the world around him.

Connoisseur's Note

This print is one of a small group of views Obata created of the San Francisco Bay Area after his return from a major sketching tour through the High Sierra. Unlike the sweeping wilderness views of Yosemite for which he is best known, Spring Rain turns the artist’s attention to the poetry of the everyday urban moment. The work was produced in Japan under the supervision of Obata himself by the Takamizawa Print Company—one of Japan’s most respected publishers—ensuring the quality and authenticity of each impression.

As with many of Obata’s urban scenes, there is an affectionate tension between East and West, tradition and modernity. Here, the rain-soaked Berkeley street becomes a stage for fleeting beauty and quiet observation. It is a meditation on impermanence and weather’s power to unify and isolate—a deeply personal image of cultural convergence rendered with precision and warmth.