Kirifuri Waterfall at Mount Kurokami in Shimotsuke Province – Katsushika Hokusai (c. 1832)

A waterfall that spreads across the mountain like the roots of a giant tree. In Kirifuri Waterfall at Mount Kurokami, Katsushika Hokusai splits the falling water into dozens of streams that branch, merge and slide over the rocks, drawn in deep blue and white like living fingers. Behind them, the cliffs glow in ochre and red, framed by the soft greens of the forest, and the water ends at the bottom in a spray of tiny dots and curling waves.

The people give the scene its scale. At the foot of the falls, three travellers stop to gaze up at the torrent, one of them resting on the ground beside his large round hat. Higher up on the right, two others make their way along a steep forest slope, one bent under a load. Perhaps pilgrims on the road to the sacred mountains of Nikkō, they look tiny before this wall of water.

One of Hokusai’s most famous waterfalls

The print belongs to Shokoku taki meguri, “A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provinces”, a series of eight prints published around 1832-1833, just after the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. Kirifuri, whose name means “falling mist”, is its most celebrated design. The waterfall still flows today near Nikkō, in Tochigi Prefecture, and is counted among the three famous waterfalls of Nikkō.

• Artist: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)
• Date: c. 1832
• Series: Shokoku taki meguri (A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provinces)
• Format: ōban, vertical
• Place: Kirifuri waterfall, Mount Kurokami, Shimotsuke Province (today Tochigi), Japan

Hang it as a pair with The Waterfall at Ono on the Kisokaidō Road, from the same series. Discover more of the artist in our Hokusai collection.