Nanushi Waterfall

Nanushi-no-taki, a waterfall in the wooded districts west of central Tokyo, was a destination for Edo-period excursionists and a subject for the [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) place-picture tradition long before Koizumi recorded it in the early Showa period. The composition frames the falling water as a vertical white passage against darker rock and foliage, the cascade rendered through fine keyblock lines and flat blocks of pigment rather than the calligraphic brush of painted depictions. [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradients in the surrounding rock convey the dampness and shadow of the gorge, while the water itself is left largely unprinted to register through the white of the [washi](/glossary/washi) sheet. As with other prints in Dai Tokyo Hyakkei (One Hundred Views of Great Tokyo, 1928-1940), the subject participates in the older meisho tradition of cataloguing famous places while being executed under the [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) ideal of the artist as sole carver, printer, and publisher.