While Katsushika Hokusai is best known for “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” from his famous series “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji,” an equally stunning series is “Tour of the Waterfalls in Various Provinces” which houses woodblock prints like “Yōrō Waterfall in Mino Province.”
Even as “Yōrō Waterfall in Mino Province” diminishes the size of the falls to accommodate the scale of the travelers, the figures seem to acknowledge their smallness against the immensity of nature. What Hokusai takes away in height, he adds in mystique with cloud formations that create the illusion of a waterfall falling from the heavens. Intense blues and whites turn the waterfall into a thing of myth, not a new event for Yōrō Waterfall; it was first famous for a legend of water that tasted like sake, a Japanese rice wine. Hokusai captures both the majesty of the waterfall and the awe of travelers as they watch the wall of water crash to the ground.
Guest author: Maren Petersen
