Yoro Falls in Mino Province (Mino no Yoro no taki), from the series "A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces (Shokoku taki meguri)"

Yoro Falls in Mino Province (Mino no Yoro no taki), produced around 1828, is part of Katsushika Hokusai's series A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces (Shokoku taki meguri), published by Nishimuraya Yohachi. According to legend, water from the Yoro waterfall in present-day Gifu Prefecture once turned into rejuvenating sake for a devoted son, an origin story that elevated the cascade among Japan's celebrated natural and moral landmarks. Hokusai accordingly treats the falls with reverence, painting the water as a wide curtain falling between mossy rocks while pilgrims and travellers gather at its foot. As a ukiyo-e print, the design demonstrates the artist's interest in transforming water itself into a graphic motif, with carved channels in the printing block conveying volume and current. Prussian blue dominates the pool below and the upper basin, with subtle bokashi giving depth to the surrounding cliffs. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves a fine impression of this design, and the museum's larger collection of Edo ukiyo-e prints supports comparison with related cascades in the series. The Tour of Waterfalls remains one of the most original groups of Hokusai's late landscape output, exploring a category of subject not previously sustained at this scale in commercial ukiyo-e. The Yoro design in particular speaks to the spiritual currents that ran through Edo travel culture in the early nineteenth century.