諸國瀧廻リ 木曽路ノ奥 阿彌陀ヶ瀧|The Amida Falls in the Far Reaches of the Kisokaidō Road (Kisoji no oku Amida-ga-taki), from the series A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces (Shokoku taki meguri)

Hokusai employed traditional ukiyo‑e woodblock methods, using ink and vivid pigments on paper. The mist of the waterfall is rendered with swirling, curved lines that convey motion, while bold blues and greens delineate water and vegetation. Cross‑hatching in the rock surfaces adds depth, and the soft yellow sky provides atmospheric contrast.

The print belongs to the series “Shokoku taki meguri” (A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces), a project through which Hokusai explored Japan’s scenic sites. After its production in the early 1830s, the sheet entered private collections before being acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains on view.

During the late Edo period, travel literature and landscape prints flourished as interest in domestic tourism grew. Hokusai’s waterfall series reflects this cultural shift, documenting remote locales along historic routes such as the Kisokaidō, a subsidiary of the Nakasendō that linked Edo with Kyoto through mountainous terrain.