“Waterfall "

Hashimoto Kansetsu Japanese

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 231

Hashimoto Kansetsu, the noted painter of Nihonga (modern Japanese-style painting) and calligrapher, has boldly inscribed a large character reading “waterfall” (taki 瀧). To the left he quotes a line from a poem in Chinese by the journalist-poet Narushima Ryūhoku (1837–1884), who composed it during a visit to America in 1873. After viewing Niagara Falls for the first time, he wrote:

瀧 萬丈珠簾捲月明

The waterfall—
A ten-thousand-foot jeweled curtain
unfurls, glistening in the moonlight.

—Trans. John T. Carpenter

“Waterfall ", Hashimoto Kansetsu (Japanese, 1883–1945), Hanging scroll; ink on paper, Japan

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