Mt Fuji reflected in a waterfall

A second treatment of the Fuji-and-waterfall motif, this print likely offers a variant composition on the same conceit: Mount Fuji either visible behind a cascade or its silhouette implied within the falling water itself. Working variants on a single theme was common practice for Gekko, who produced multiple versions of subjects across his career as commercial demand and series structures dictated. Differences between the two prints might involve seasonal coloration, vertical versus horizontal framing, the inclusion of foreground figures or pine trees, or the treatment of the waterfall basin. [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradation would carry much of the visual weight in either version, modulating from the white of the water to the indigo of the deeper pool and the soft blue of the distant mountain. As with his other Fuji studies, this print engages with a subject central to Edo-period landscape art while updating the formal approach for a Meiji audience accustomed to the more atmospheric, less diagrammatic treatments characteristic of late-nineteenth-century mokuhanga.