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How does the painting of Nachi Falls show the sacred power of a natural site?

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The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai shows a towering blue wave threatening boats, with Mount Fuji visible in the background. — Japanese art *The Breaking Wave off Kanagawa*, woodblock colour print by Hokusai, from the series *Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji*, 1826–33.

The painting of Nachi Falls illustrates the sacred power of a natural site by emphasizing the overwhelming, constant force of the waterfall in relation to the human-made environment. In this work, the immense scale and power of the plunging water dominate the small architecture of the Shinto shrine built to honor the site.1

This depiction reflects a broader indigenous religious sensibility that perceived a spiritual realm manifest in nature. Features such as waterfalls, rock outcroppings, and old trees were viewed as the abodes of spirits and were understood as their personification, endowing the natural world with numinous qualities. By utilizing traditional Buddhist painting techniques to capture this site on the Kii Peninsula, the artist reveals how such landscapes were integrated into religious iconography, effectively highlighting the sacredness of the territory through the visual representation of nature's raw, transcendent power.21