Japanese Print "Rōben Waterfall at Ōyama in Sagami Province" by Katsushika Hokusai
Artist:Katsushika Hokusai
Title:Rōben Waterfall at Ōyama in Sagami Province
Date:about 1833
Details:More information...
Source:Worcester Art Museum
Browse all 3,039 prints...
Description:
Located on the sacred Mount Oyama, also called Afuriyama (‘Rain-making Mountain’), in present-day Kanagawa Prefecture, Roben Waterfall plunges from wooded cliffs. Its force is apparent from the spray surrounding the pilgrims who purify themselves in the pool below. Such ritual cleansing was required before climbing to Oyama Temple, founded by Roben (689-773), a monk of the Buddhist Kegon sect. A statue of Fudo Myo-o or Acala, the immovable, wrathful destroyer of delusion, is enshrined at this temple in its most spectacular manifestation, namely as the dragon king Kurikara coiled around an upright sword. During the Edo period (1615-1868) pilgrimages by religious fraternities to Oyama Temple in mid-summer became enormously popular. Pilgrims often offered six-foot-long wooden sword-shaped prayer boards. The men would leave their clothing in the guest house (on the right) as they bathed, and as Hokusai shows, many brought their prayer-swords with them into the water. Hokusai incorporated several references to his publisher Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudo) in the design: the publisher’s trademark appears on the hat at the top of the pile of headgear in the guest house; the man who pauses and leans back to look up at the waterfall holds on to a summer coat embellished with a repeating pattern of the character ? (ju) as well as the publisher’s trademark; and on the hat hanging on the wooden fence one can see the character ? (ei).
