Shomyo Waterfall

Shomyo Falls in the mountains of Toyama Prefecture drops roughly 350 meters in four staged cascades and has been a meisho (famous place) subject in Japanese art since the medieval period. Tokuriki's print follows the conventional vertical oban format used for waterfall imagery, which lets the keyblock trace the cliff face from crest to plunge pool in a single tall composition. Prints of this type rely on [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradation in the falling water — the printer wipes pigment unevenly across the block to suggest mist and spray — while the surrounding rock and foliage are built up with several color blocks registered against [kento](/glossary/kento) marks. The waterfall subject ties Tokuriki to the long lineage of [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) running through Hokusai's Shokoku Taki Meguri (A Tour of Waterfalls in the Provinces) and Hiroshige's vertical landscapes, while his palette and flatter spatial handling place him within the twentieth-century [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) and [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) revival of the form.