ng to Paris. He put Japanese prints on his walls. At first, "he sees only the curious and fantastic in these coloured woodcuts" and only gradually does he gain an appreciation of them on a deeper level (de Gruyter 23). It was in Paris, at the Bing Gallery that van Gogh became familiar with thousands of Japanese prints that affected his art. He was able to view the Japanese woodblocks of Utamano, Hokusai, Hiroshige and Eisen. He also became a serious collector of ukiyo-e (images of the floating world). He also began to paint copies of famous designs of the Japanese landscape printmaker, Hiroshige, notably "Bridge in the Rain" and "Plum Tree in Bloom." In "Rain Shower on Ohaski Bridge" (1887), van Gogh reproduced Hiroshige's 1857 print of the same name, adding his own style by, for example, using quick slashes with the end of a paint brush to portray rain, ignoring the smooth textures of the Hiroshige print.
Although he was influenced by Hiroshige, "van Gogh's use of colors was not very close to the originals. Instead he used his concept of complimentary colors like the green against the red," (Van Gogh and Japonisme), indicating that he was searching for a new way to express his art rather than merely copying what others did. The Japanese influence on van Gogh may be properly termed as referential Japonisme. Japanese art offered van Gogh a model of art that used large areas of a single color brushed in a rather flat method, as well as the decorative power of unbroken contours, lines that he drew in a variety of colors aside from traditional black. The Japanese mode
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