A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces (Shokoku taki meguri)
Ono Waterfall on the Kisokaidō
Kisokaidō Ono no bakufu
Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1832
What it is
The Ono fall on the Kisokaidō drops straight as a curtain beside a small shrine, and travellers stop on a bridge to look.
Why it matters
Hokusai draws this fall almost as architecture, a flat wall of water set beside the buildings at its foot.
What to notice
The water is a straight vertical band from top to bottom, with no break or swerve in it.
The road pauses where the water drops.
The record
- Artist
- Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760–1849)
- Series
- A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces (Shokoku taki meguri)
- Date
- c. 1832
- Medium
- woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Source
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art · JP1082
Impression note. A vertical ōban, about 37 by 26 cm on the Met record. Hokusai’s falling water is carved as long, separate lines, and a clean impression keeps them unbroken from the lip of the fall to the pool. This is the largest clean open impression of the design the Met holds. Impression variance is real — printings differ in wiping and fading — and choosing the finest openly held impression is the curatorial act.
Public domain; faithfully reproduced.
Bring it home
Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm.
From the same series
A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces (Shokoku taki meguri)The Waterfall Where Yoshitsune Washed His Horse at Yoshino in Yamato ProvinceKatsushika Hokusai · c. 1832 · from $69.00
A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces (Shokoku taki meguri)Kirifuri Waterfall at Kurokami Mountain in ShimotsukeKatsushika Hokusai · c. 1832 · from $69.00
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A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces (Shokoku taki meguri)Rōben Waterfall at Ōyama in Sagami ProvinceKatsushika Hokusai · c. 1827 (date on the Met record) · from $69.00The road at your moment — Painted Earth’s ukiyo-e style pack.