The Waterfall at Ono on the Kisokaidō Road – Katsushika Hokusai (c. 1832)

A column of water so tall it seems to fall straight from the sky. In The Waterfall at Ono on the Kisokaidō Road, Katsushika Hokusai turns a waterfall into a graphic masterpiece: long vertical bands of deep blue and white plunge from the top of the print and burst into a spray of tiny dots at its foot. Around it rise steep cliffs in green, ochre and red, scattered with trees and soft blue clouds, while a small red pavilion clings to a rock beside the falls.

At the bottom of the scene, life goes on. A group of travellers crosses the path and a little wooden bridge over a rushing stream: one bends under his load, another carries bundles on a shoulder pole, and one points up at the waterfall in wonder. Their straw hats slung on their backs and the stone-weighted roofs on the left bring the human scale that makes the falls look even more immense.

A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provinces

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. In it, Hokusai explores every way of drawing falling water, here with a rhythm of stripes that feels almost modern. The Ono waterfall still flows today in the Kiso valley, in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture, along the old Kisokaidō road that linked Edo to Kyoto through the mountains.

• Artist: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)
• Date: c. 1832
• Series: Shokoku taki meguri (A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provinces)
• Format: ōban, vertical
• Place: Ono waterfall, Kisokaidō road, Japan

Its tall vertical format makes it perfect for a hallway, a narrow wall or a pair with another landscape. Discover more of the artist in our Hokusai collection.