Mountain Stream Oirase

The Oirase Stream (Oirase Keiryu) flows from Lake Towada in Aomori Prefecture through a celebrated gorge of moss-covered rocks, waterfalls, and dense forest — a destination particularly famous for its autumn color and its luminous summer green. This print likely captures the stream weaving between boulders beneath an overhanging canopy, with white-water passages suggested by the unprinted [washi](/glossary/washi) or by subtle [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) rather than heavy linework. Ohtsu's rendering of moving water through mokuhanga relies on the contrast between flat color fields for stones and foliage and the worked gradations that suggest spray and current. The Oirase is part of the meisho tradition of celebrated natural locations in northern Japan, and Ohtsu's depiction places it within his recurring engagement with rural Tohoku scenery. The mountainous, water-rich landscapes of northern Honshu recur throughout his oeuvre alongside his rice paddy and farmhouse subjects, expressing the same attachment to the unhurried rhythms of provincial Japan, here transposed from human cultivation to the more elemental forms of stone, water, and forest.