Shiragumo Waterfall of Nikkō

Shiragumo Waterfall of Nikkō is an early twentieth-century Japanese woodblock print by Hiroaki Takahashi, the artist also widely known by the art name Shōtei. The print presents Nikkō as a dramatic landscape of plunging water, dark rock, evergreen growth, and a small bridge crossed by travelers in patterned kimono. Its tall format and emphatic contrasts give the waterfall a monumental scale while retaining the intimate mood associated with Shōtei's tourist and landscape prints. Takahashi was recruited by Watanabe Shōzaburō in 1907 and became one of the first artists in Watanabe's effort to revive ukiyo-e methods for a modern export market. The work belongs to the transitional context of shinsaku-hanga and early shin-hanga, where traditional woodblock technique was used to create newly designed views of Japan.