Hokusai's Rōben Falls: Where Pilgrims Washed Before the Climb

A Waterfall That Fills the Page

In this print a tall waterfall drops straight down the middle of the sheet. At the bottom, small figures gather in the pool. The water is the star, and the people look tiny beside it.

This is Katsushika Hokusai's view of the Rōben Falls at Ōyama, in old Sagami Province, today part of Kanagawa, near Tokyo. It is one of his best-loved ukiyo-e landscapes.

Hokusai's Waterfalls

The print belongs to a series called A Tour of Waterfalls in the Provinces. Hokusai made it around 1833, soon after his famous Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. The series has eight prints, each one a different famous waterfall.

Hokusai did not draw water the way it really looks. He drew it as a pattern. Near the top the water splits into branch-like threads, then it falls in long, straight lines. He used a lot of deep blue, the imported "Prussian blue" that had just become cheap enough to use, so the water becomes the center of everything.

Some people think this waterfall series is Hokusai's best landscape work, even better than the Fuji prints.

Why People Came to the Falls

Mount Ōyama was a pilgrimage place. People walked there to pray at the mountain shrine.

Before the climb, pilgrims stopped at the Rōben Falls to wash in the cold water. This was a ritual cleansing: you made your body pure before going up the sacred mountain. That is what the small figures in the print are doing, standing under and beside the falls, getting ready to climb.

The falls and the local temple take their name from Rōben, a monk who lived in the 700s and is tied to the founding of Ōyama.

The Print We Have

The print we carry is a reproduction of Hokusai's design. It is a real woodblock print, made by hand in the traditional way, not a machine copy. It is pre-owned and shows some age, which is normal for a print like this. The product page has photos of the exact condition.

You can see more Hokusai prints here. New to prints? Our guide on original, reprint, or reproduction explains the terms.

Sources

Worcester Art Museum — Pilgrimage to Hokusai's Waterfalls.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Rōben Waterfall at Ōyama.

John Fiorillo, Viewing Japanese Prints — on Hokusai.