The Amida Falls on the Kiso Road
c. 1832 · Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and colour on paper · Impressions in several collections, including the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Tokyo National Museum
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This print
About this work
- Artist
- Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849)
- Year
- c. 1832
- Medium
- Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and colour on paper
- Original size
- approx. 36.2 × 26 cm (ōban)
- Collection
- Impressions in several collections, including the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Tokyo National Museum
- Movement
- Ukiyo-e
- Series
- A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces
A perfect circle of water sits at the top of the sheet, the rim of a basin from which the Amida falls drop in a straight white column to the valley below. Three travellers picnic on the cliff at lower left, dwarfed by the geometry. The design comes from A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces, the eight-print series Hokusai issued around 1832, and it is the most abstract of the group: the round pool was said to resemble the halo of the Buddha Amida, which gave the falls their name. Hokusai was in his seventies and at the peak of his landscape work, combining Western-style perspective with flat printed colour. The print uses the imported Prussian blue that defined the series.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
The circle of water at the top gives this print a graphic calm that works in a bathroom, bedroom or quiet study. At 16×24 in natural wood on a pale wall it reads as one clean shape; hang with Kirifuri Waterfall as a vertical pair.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Ukiyo-e painting
- Era
- 19th century (c. 1832)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cornflower blue
- Mood
- calm
- Rooms
- bedroom, bathroom, study or library, living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, travelers, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway.
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — natural wood flatters the lighter palette; black sharpens it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is The Amida Falls in the Far Reaches of the Kisokaidō Road in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was The Amida Falls in the Far Reaches of the Kisokaidō Road painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
