"Amida Waterfall" by Hokusai

Amida Waterfall on the Kiso Highway is from Katsushika Hokusai's series A Journey to the Waterfalls of all the Provinces. My wonderful husband Will gave it to me for winter solstice. I have ordered it a frame and am eager to display it on a wall in our home.

I wrote about another print from that series - Kirifuri Waterfall - back in 2010, the year I started this blog. I wrote about how the streams of water read like massive, exposed tree roots. This waterfall reads very differently. The stream at the top appears like a moon streaked with blue wood grain. Streams then fall almost straight down; a long line of parallel stripes of various widths, like a bar code. The work elegantly expresses the memorizing beauty and grandeur of a natural monument. As in all of Hokusai's waterfalls (and most of his landscapes in general) the people are dwarfed by the subject, and seem so much more nimble and transient.

Coincidentally, that blog post from 2010 is also the only one which includes a photograph of my beloved.