Page 324 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

177 The image of the Amida Waterfall their way north from Edo to visit
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) (cat. 177), a scenic spot along the old Tóshógú—a shrine in Nikkó dedi-
Amida Water/all on the Kiso Highway, Kiso Highway in what is now Gifu cated to Tokugawa leyasu—would
from A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Prefecture, stands out for its strikingly commonly include a side trip to
Provinces abstract composition. Its name derives view the Kirifuri Waterfall on nearby
from the appearance of the rounded- Mount Kurokami in Shimotsuke
c. 1833-1834 out gorge at the head of the waterfall,
Color woodblock print which is thought to resemble the province (present-day Tochigi Prefec-
ture). Considered the most
spec-
3
3
37.5 x 24.8 (i4 / 4 x9 / 4 ) luminous halo of Amida—the Buddha
Private Collection, California tacular of the waterfalls in the Nikkó
who presides over the Western Para- area, streams of water cascade down
dise (the Buddhist heaven). Hokusai, two main tiers of falls, more than
178 giving in to his formalistic propensi-
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) seventy-five meters in height. The
Kiri/uri Waterfall at Mount Kurokami in ties, however, has exaggerated the Kirifuri Waterfall becomes a pilgrim- 323
geometry of the actual landscape.
age spot in its own right during the
Shimotsufee Province, from A Tour of
Waterfalls in Various Provinces The swirling waves within a roundel early summer when the azaleas are
capture a watery infinity rendered in in bloom, and Hokusai's iconic image
c. 1833-1834 a magnificent Rinpa graphic mode, did much to further its popularity
Color woodblock print allowing pictorial abstraction to aspire as a tourist destination.
38 x 25.8 (15 x loVs) to a spiritual plane befitting the tra- The Chinese character on the hat of
Private Collection, California ditional connections of the site with
Shinto and Buddhist worship. In the man climbing the hill reads ei,
• In each of the prints from this contrast to the exalted concepts of "eternity," and that of the man resting
falls is inscribed
at the base of the
series a famous Japanese waterfall nature, religion, and art symbolized with the character ju, "long life." But
serves as the protagonist in a dra- by the water, Hokusai represents
matic interplay of nature's grandeur humanity by a diminutive scene of rather than any auspicious connota-
tion, here it refers to Eijudô, a pub-
and the quotidian realm of mortals. two men and a servant partaking lishing house headed by Nishimuraya
Moreover, as in the evocative render- of a modest picnic.
Yohachi. Such advertising plugs for
ing of a stream with carp and turtles The vertical ôban (large sheet) for- his publishers are common in Hoku-
from 1810-1820 (cat. 197) or in the mat, used for each of the prints in the sai's landscape prints. In contrast to
dynamic drama of the Great Waue series, contributes to the effect of this and other prints in the series,
(cat. 169) from the early 18305—just a
few years before the waterfall series loftiness. Here the artist does not the previous image of the Amida
Waterfall, for reasons unclear, was
a full view of the Amida Water-
show
was undertaken—Hokusai proves fall, but crops it midway to empha- printed without the publisher's or
himself to be the consummate por- size its plummeting height, over sixty censor's seals. JTC
trayer of water. Through abstracting meters in actuality. The artificially
the natural essence of surging elevated perspective—accentuated by
water, the artist conveys its physical, situating the gaze of the spectator
spiritual, and aesthetic potency.
even higher than the picnickers atop
a precipitous cliff—is a technique
that Hokusai often employed to con-
vey the sensation of dizzying altitude.
The image of the Kirifuri Waterfall
(cat. 178) shows fingerlike rills of
water splashing into a pool below as
wayfarers look on. During early
modern times pilgrims on foot, making