Itō Shinsui sometimes incorporated atmospheric effects such as rain or snow into the backgrounds of his prints. In this diagonal composition, a young woman leans into the wind as she opens her oiled-paper umbrella. Streaks of unprinted white paper indicate the driving rain. Shinsui created several hundred print designs in the course of his long career, and toward the end of his life he was designated a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government.

Pictured: "Rain While the Sun Is Shining," 1917, on view in "New Women for a New Age: Japanese Beauties, 1890s–1930s."

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston