The Boatman (In Hiroshige's ‘evening Shower At Ohashi Bridge, Atake') Poem by Deborah Cox

Utagawa Hiroshige's woodblock print ‘Evening shower at Ohashi Bridge, Atake' in The Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

Like Hiroshige, the boatman is alone using the wood and water to direct the course of his intent - the way he holds his oar is suggestive of the artist's own ink line drawing (which preceded the block-making process) . The boatman's relationship to the medium is active (he uses nature, gliding over the water) whereas the other characters depicted are subject to it.
• Washi (和紙) is a style of paper that was first made in Japan. Made using fibres from the bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub (Edgeworthia Chrysantha) , or the paper mulberry, it also can be made using bamboo, hemp, rice, and wheat. Washi comes from wa meaning Japanese and shi meaning paper, and the term is used to describe paper made by hand in the traditional manner.