Moses smiting the Rock at Meribah- Exodus 17 3-6

Moses striking water from the rock at Meribah (Exodus 17:3–6) — the moment when the thirsty Israelites' complaint moves God to instruct Moses to strike the rock with his staff, bringing water from the stone — is a wilderness miracle in which the ordinary material world becomes a vessel of divine provision. Watanabe's katazome rendering of the scene would place Moses' raised staff at the composition's center, the gathered crowd visible behind him, the rock and the emerging water rendered in the bold, simplified forms of his stencil technique.