Diptych Carp, Waterfall | Mori Tetsuzan | 1775-1841

Waterfalls are a popular subject in Japan (as they were in ancient China). They often have an almost sacred aura. If you see a magnificent waterfall in Japan, you can expect to find a Shinto shrine nearby. Many temple gardens feature at least a small waterfall near a pond. A gently trickling waterfall fits beautifully with the tranquility of the garden.

The special feature of this waterfall diptych is, of course, the rising carp. Indeed, these fishes are not deterred by a waterfall from swimming back upstream to their spawning grounds. This image of the carp swimming upwards in the falling water is a popular motif for "courage and strength" and is therefore used as a fitting theme for decorations on the "Boy's Festival" on May 5th. The famous flying cloth carp, koinobori , can still be seen today, especially in rural areas in May; they add wonderful splashes of color to the landscape.

Mori Tetsuzan, officially one of the "Ten Best Students of Maruyama Ōkyō," learned from his master how to depict carp swimming up a waterfall. Ōkyō invented the formula of painting the fish only between strands of water (which were left out in negative as white stripes). Tetsuzan adopted this technique, but remained more committed to a realistic formulation, consistently suggesting a painted fish body. Nevertheless, with the almost complete disappearance of the carp's tail, the poetry of the fish's emergence as it swims upwards is preserved.

Tetsuzan's penchant for realism, which he essentially inherited from his teacher, is brilliantly expressed in the right-hand picture, which has only the waterfall as its subject.