‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’, first of the series ‘Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji’, color woodblock print by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, 10 x 15 in, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Great Wave off Kanagawa (‘The Great Wave’, or ‘Behind the Great Wave at Kanagawa’), is a color woodblock print by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). It is a great example of ukiyo-e art published in the period between 1830 and 1833 as a part of the artist’s famous series ‘Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji’. It is Hokusai’s most famous work, and one of the most celebrated pieces of Japanese art in the world.

‘The Great Wave’ depicts a huge okinami wave threatening three boats near Kanagawa prefecture in southern Kanto region of Honshu, Japan. This huge wave is sometimes incorrectly described as tsunami, but it is a large okinami (or, great off-shore wave).

The ukiyo-e art is created by using the Japanese art technique of printing art works from wood blocks. It originated in China and was introduced to Japan in the 8th century. Though it was initially intended for illustration of Buddhist texts, gradually ukiyo-e art found popular use for book illustration, and other purposes such as even advertisements.

An ukiyo-e artist creates single works with brushes on paper or silk, and uses the services of an engraver, who attaches the painting on a wood panel and carves it to form a relief of the painting. Depending on the colors in the painting, the engraver may produce a number of plates. Then prints are taken on paper by using these plates, sometimes thousands of prints before the plates are worn out.

Hokusai was born in 1760 in Katsushika, a district in the east of Edo (now Tokyo). He studied Japanese and Chinese styles of art as well as Dutch and French painting styles. He used to create landscapes, scenes of daily life, and even art works for advertisements and New Years’ cards.

Hokusai became famous in 1804 when he completed a 240 m x 240 m painting of the Buddhist monk Daruma during a festival in Tokyo. He became more popular when he published 15 volumes of sketches entitled ‘Manga’, which included images of the Buddha, people and places, animals, etc. Between 1826 and 1833 he published his most famous Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa is a landscape (seascape, if you like to call it so) depicting three main elements such as the sea and the waves, boats and Mount Fuji.

The sea and waves are the dominant elements, with a huge okinami wave about to break, and rocking boats. It forms a circle and allows the spectator to view Mt Fuji in the background.

There are three boats shown braving the waves of the sea in Kanagawa prefecture of Japan. The sea is deified, and the waves are glorified. One can estimate the height and size of the waves using the boats as reference. The boats, the oshiokuri-bune which were used to transport live fishes, measure between 12 to 15 meters in length, and hence the huge wave might have had a height of 10 to 12 meters.

For the Japanese, Mount Fuji is a sacred mountain and a symbol of their national identity. The scene seemingly shows the early morning with the sun rising and illuminating the snow-clad peak of Mt. Fuji.

Hokusai has a one-word name without a last name. Katsushika is the name of the district where he was born. For this reason, or other reasons not known, he had used more than 30 different names throughout his career.

There are several copies of this woodblock print on display throughout the world, in museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the British Museum (London), the Guimet Museum, and the National Library of France, and also in several private collections.

As in the case of some other famous works of art, the Great Wave has been frequently copied using ukiyo-e techniques, photo-mechanical means, etc. No wonder then, The Great Wave off Kanagawa is also one of the most reproduced artworks in the world.