:The Great Wave off Kanagawa

{{Main|Ukiyo-e|Woodblock printing in Japan}}

File:Ukiyo-e dsc04680.jpg

Ukiyo-e is a Japanese printmaking technique which flourished in the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of subjects including female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; Japanese flora and fauna; and erotica. The term {{nihongo||浮世絵|ukiyo-e}} translates as "picture[s] of the floating world".

After Edo (now Tokyo) became the seat of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate in 1603,{{sfn|Penkoff|1964|pp=4–5}} the chōnin class of merchants, craftsmen, and workers benefited most from the city's rapid economic growth,{{sfn|Singer|1986|p=66}} and began to indulge in and patronise the entertainment of kabuki theatre, geisha, and courtesans of the pleasure districts;{{sfn|Penkoff|1964|pp=4–5}} the term {{transliteration|ja|ukiyo}} ("floating world") came to describe this hedonistic lifestyle. Printed or painted ukiyo-e works were popular with the chōnin class, who had become wealthy enough to afford to decorate their homes with them.{{sfn|Penkoff|1964|p=6}}

The earliest ukiyo-e works, Hishikawa Moronobu's paintings and monochromatic prints of women, emerged in the 1670s.{{sfn|Kikuchi|Kenny|1969|p=31}} Colour prints were introduced gradually, and at first were only used for special commissions. By the 1740s, artists such as Okumura Masanobu used multiple woodblocks to print areas of colour.{{sfn|Kobayashi|1997|p=77}} In the 1760s, the success of Suzuki Harunobu's "brocade prints" led to full-colour production becoming standard, with ten or more blocks used to create each print. Some ukiyo-e artists specialized in creating paintings, but most works were prints.{{sfn|Kobayashi|1997|p=81}} Artists rarely carved their own woodblocks; production was divided between the artist, who designed the prints; the carver, who cut the woodblocks; the printer, who inked and pressed the woodblocks onto hand-made paper; and the publisher who financed, promoted, and distributed the works. As printing was done by hand, printers were able to achieve effects impractical with machines, such as the blending or gradation of colours on the printing block.{{sfn|Salter|2001|p=11}}

{{Main|Katsushika Hokusai}}

File:Hokusai as an old man.jpg

Katsushika Hokusai was born in Katsushika, Japan, in 1760 in a district east of Edo.{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=120}} He was the son of a shogun mirrormaker, and at the age of 14, he was named Tokitarō.{{cite web |title=Katsushika Hokusai |url=https://www.epdlp.com/pintor.php?id=2884 |website=El Poder de La Palabra |access-date=3 June 2022 |language=es |archive-date=17 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210617200205/https://www.epdlp.com/pintor.php?id=2884 |url-status=live }} As Hokusai was never recognised as an heir, it is likely his mother was a concubine.{{sfn|Weston|2002|p=116}}

Hokusai began painting when he was six years old, and when he was twelve his father sent him to work in a bookstore. At sixteen, he became an engraver's apprentice, which he remained for three years while also beginning to create his own illustrations. At eighteen, Hokusai was accepted as an apprentice to artist Katsukawa Shunshō, one of the greatest ukiyo-e artists of his time.{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=120}} When Shunshō died in 1793, Hokusai studied Japanese and Chinese styles, as well as some Dutch and French paintings on his own. In 1800, he published Famous Views of the Eastern Capital and Eight Views of Edo, and began to accept trainees.{{sfn|Weston|2002|p=117}} During this period he began to use the name Hokusai; during his life, he would use more than 30 pseudonyms.{{sfn|Weston|2002|p=116}}

In 1804, Hokusai rose to prominence when he created a {{Convert|240|m2|sqft|abbr=out|adj=on}} drawing of a Buddhist monk named Daruma for a festival in Tokyo. Due to his precarious financial situation, in 1812, he published Quick Lessons in Simplified Drawing, and began to travel to Nagoya and Kyoto to recruit more students. In 1814, he published the first of 15 manga; volumes of sketches of subjects that interested him, such as people, animals, and Buddha. He published his famous series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji in the late 1820s; it was so popular he later had to add ten more prints.{{sfn|Weston|2002|p=118}} Hokusai died in 1849 at the age of 89.{{sfn|Guth|2011|p=468}}{{sfn|Weston|2002|p=120}}

According to Calza (2003), years before his death Hokusai stated:

{{blockquote|From the age of six, I had a passion for copying the form of things and since the age of fifty I have published many drawings, yet of all I drew by my seventieth year there is nothing worth taking into account. At seventy-three years I partly understood the structure of animals, birds, insects and fishes, and the life of grasses and plants. And so, at eighty-six I shall progress further; at ninety I shall even further penetrate their secret meaning, and by one hundred I shall perhaps truly have reached the level of the marvellous and divine. When I am one hundred and ten, each dot, each line will possess a life of its own.{{sfn|Calza|2003|p=7}}}}

The Great Wave off Kanagawa is a landscape-format yoko-e print that was produced in an ōban size of {{convert|25|x|37|cm|in|abbr=on}}.{{sfn|Hillier|1970|p=230}}{{cite web |title=Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei) |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/60013238 |website=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=14 May 2022 |archive-date=14 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220514165156/https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/60013238 |url-status=live }} The landscape is composed of three elements: a stormy sea, three boats, and a mountain. The artist's signature is visible in the upper left-hand corner.

File:Kanagawa-oki nami-ura - huge wave against human.jpg

In the background is Mount Fuji and its snow-capped summit;{{sfn|Ornes|2014|p=13245}} Mount Fuji is the central figure of the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series, which depicts the mountain from different angles. In The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Mount Fuji is depicted in blue with white highlights in a similar way to the wave in the foreground.{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=119}} The dark colour surrounding the mountain appears to indicate the painting is set in the early morning, with the sun rising from the viewer's vantage point and beginning to illuminate the snowy peak. There are cumulonimbus clouds between the mountain and the viewer; although these clouds typically indicate a storm, there is no rain on Fuji or in the main scene.{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|pp=122–123}}

The scene shows three oshiokuri-bune, fast barges that were used to transport live fish from the Izu and Bōsō peninsulas to markets in Edo Bay.{{sfn|Kobayashi|1997|p=47}}{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=121}} According to analysis by Cartwright and Nakamura (2009), the boats are located in Edo (Tokyo) Bay off the present-day Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, with Edo to the north and Mount Fuji to the west. The boats are facing south, likely to Sagami Bay to collect a cargo of fish for sale in Edo.{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=121}} Each boat has eight rowers who are holding their oars. At the front of each boat are two more relief crew members; 30 men are represented in the picture but only 22 are visible. The size of the wave can be approximated using the boats as a reference: the oshiokuri-bune were generally between {{Convert|12|and|15|metres|ft|abbr=out}} long. Taking into account Hokusai reduced the vertical scale by 30%, the wave is between {{Convert|10|and|12|metres|ft|abbr=out}} high.{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=123}}

{{multiple image

| width = 200

| direction = vertical

| image1 = The Great Wave off Kanagawa - wave.jpg

| alt1 = refer to caption

| caption1 = Fractal-like detail of the crest of the wave, similar in appearance to "claws"

| image2 = Kanagawa-oki nami-ura - 2 waves or 2 Fuji.jpg

| alt2 = refer to caption

| caption2 = Detail of the small wave, which has a shape similar to the silhouette of Mount Fuji itself

}}

The sea dominates the composition, which is based on the shape of a wave that spreads out and dominates the entire scene before falling. At this point, the wave forms a perfect spiral with its centre passing through the centre of the design, allowing viewers to see Mount Fuji in the background. The image is made up of curves, with the water's surface being an extension of the curves inside the waves. The big wave's foam-curves generate other curves, which are divided into many small waves that repeat the image of the large wave.{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=119}} Edmond de Goncourt, a French writer, described the wave as follows:

{{blockquote|[Drawing] board that was supposed to have been called The Wave. It is much like that almost deified drawing, [created] by a painter gripped by religious terror of a formidable sea that surrounded his country: a drawing that shows [the wave's] angry ascent to the sky, the deep azure of the curl's transparent interior, the tearing of its crest that scatters in a shower of droplets in the form of an animal's claws.{{sfn|Médicis|Huebner|2018|p=319}}}}

The wave is generally described as that produced by a tsunami, a giant wave or more likely a rogue wave, but also as a monstrous or ghostly wave like a white skeleton threatening the fishermen with its "claws" of foam.{{sfn|Hillier|1970|p=230}}{{sfn|Dudley|Sarano|Dias|2013|p=159}}{{sfn|Ornes|2014}}{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=119}} This interpretation of the work recalls Hokusai's mastery of Japanese fantasy, which is evidenced by the ghosts in his Hokusai Manga. An examination of the wave on the left side reveals many more "claws" that are ready to seize the fishermen behind the white foam strip. This image recalls many of Hokusai's previous works, including his Hyaku Monogatari series One Hundred Ghost Stories, produced from 1831 to 1832, which more explicitly depicts supernatural themes.{{sfn|Bayou|2008|pp=144–145}} The wave's silhouette resembles that of a dragon, which the author frequently depicts, even on Mount Fuji.{{harvnb|Honour|Fleming|1991|p=597}}, "Mount Fuji's snow covered cone recurs in them, glimpsed in the most famous from the through of a great wave breaking into spray like dragon-claws over fragile boats".{{cite web |title=HOKUSAI: BEYOND THE GREAT WAVE |url=https://asianartnewspaper.com/hokusai-beyond-great-wave/ |website=Asian Art Newspaper |access-date=21 May 2022 |date=1 June 2017 |archive-date=17 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220717010328/https://asianartnewspaper.com/hokusai-beyond-great-wave/ |url-status=live }}

File:The Great Wave off Kanagawa - Title and signature.jpg

The Great Wave off Kanagawa has two inscriptions. The title of the series is written in the upper-left corner within a rectangular frame, which reads: "冨嶽三十六景/神奈川沖/浪裏" Fugaku Sanjūrokkei / Kanagawa oki / nami ura, meaning "Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji / On the high seas in Kanagawa / Under the wave". The inscription to the left of the box bears the artist's signature: 北斎改爲一筆 Hokusai aratame Iitsu hitsu which reads as "(painting) from the brush of Hokusai, who changed his name to Iitsu".{{cite web |title=Hokusai "Mad about his art" from Edmond de Goncourt to Norbert Lagane |url=http://www.guimet.fr/HOKUSAI-Mad-about-his-art-From |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101014144021/http://www.guimet.fr/HOKUSAI-Mad-about-his-art-From |archive-date=14 October 2010 |website=Guimet Museum}} Due to his humble origins, Hokusai had no surname; his first nickname Katsushika was derived from the region he came from. Throughout his career, Hokusai used over 30 names and never started a new cycle of work without changing his name, sometimes leaving his name to his students.{{sfn|Goncourt|2015|pp=9, 38}}

Depth and perspective (uki-e) work in The Great Wave off Kanagawa stand out, with a strong contrast between background and foreground.{{cite web |title="The Wave" by Hokusai and "The Jingting Mountains in Autumn" by Shitao |url=http://www.cndp.fr/Tice/teledoc/dossiers/dossier_vague.htm |website=CNDP.fr |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091003054137/http://www.cndp.fr/Tice/teledoc/dossiers/dossier_vague.htm |archive-date=3 October 2009 |language=fr}} Two great masses dominate the visual space: the violence of the great wave contrasts with the serenity of the empty background, evoking the yin and yang symbol. Man, powerless, struggles between the two, which may be a reference to Buddhism (in which man-made things are ephemeral), as represented by the boats being swept away by the giant wave, and Shintoism (in which nature is omnipotent).{{cite web |last1=Rüf |first1=Isabelle |title=La "Grande vague" du Japonais Hokusai, symbole de la violence des tsunamis |url=http://www.letemps.ch/dossiers/dossiersarticle.asp?ID=147592 |website=Le Temps |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081021101433/http://www.letemps.ch/dossiers/dossiersarticle.asp?ID=147592 |archive-date=21 October 2008 |language=fr |date=29 December 2004}}

File:La Grande Vague inversée.jpg

According to some, The Great Wave off Kanagawa is "best viewed" from right to left.{{sfn|Harris|2008|p=12}} This is traditional for Japanese paintings, as Japanese script, when written vertically, is also read from right to left.{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=123}} Analyzing the boats in the image, particularly that at the top, reveals the slender, tapering bow faces left, implying the Japanese interpretation is correct. The boats' appearances can also be analysed in Hokusai's print Sōshū Chōshi from the series Chie no umi ("Oceans of Wisdom"), in which the boat moves against the current in a rightward direction, as shown by the boat's wake.{{sfn|Calza|2003|p=484}}

Hokusai faced numerous challenges during the composition of The Great Wave off Kanagawa.{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=121}} In 1826, whilst in his sixties, he suffered financial difficulty, and in 1827 apparently suffered a serious health problem, probably a stroke. His wife died the following year, and in 1829 he had to rescue his grandson from financial problems, a situation that pushed Hokusai into poverty.{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=121}} Despite sending his grandson to the countryside with his father in 1830, the financial ramifications continued for several years, during which time he was working on Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=121}} Cartwright and Nakamura (2009) interpret Hokusai's tribulations as the source of the series' powerful and innovative imagery.{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=121}} Hokusai's goal for the series appears to have been depicting the contrast between the sacred Mount Fuji and secular life.{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=128}}

{{multiple image

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| image1 = Kanagawa-oki Honmoku no zu.jpg

| alt1 = refer to caption

| caption1 = Kanagawa-oki Honmoku no zu, created around 1803

| image2 = Oshiokuri Hato Tsusen no Zu.jpg

| alt2 = refer to caption

| caption2 = Oshiokuri Hato Tsusen no Zu, created around 1805

| image3 = A colored version of the Big wave from 100 views of the Fuji, 2nd volume.jpg

| alt3 = refer to caption

| caption3 = Kaijo no Fuji, from the second volume of the 100 Views of Mount Fuji, 1834

}}

After several years of work and other drawings, Hokusai arrived at the final design for The Great Wave off Kanagawa in late 1831. Two similar works from around 30 years before the publication of The Great Wave can be considered forerunners: Kanagawa-oki Honmoku no Zu and Oshiokuri Hato Tsusen no Zu, both of which depict a boat (a sailing boat in the former, and a rowing boat in the latter) in the midst of a storm and at the base of a great wave that threatens to engulf them.{{sfn|Kobayashi|1997|p=47}}{{sfn|Nagata|1995|p=40}} The Great Wave off Kanagawa demonstrates Hokusai's drawing skill. The print, though simple in appearance to the viewer, is the result of a lengthy process of methodical reflection. Hokusai established the foundations of this method in his 1812 book Quick Lessons in Simplified Drawing, in which he explains that any object can be drawn using the relationship between the circle and the square: "The book consists of showing the technique of drawing using only a ruler and a compass ... This method starts with a line and the most naturally obtained proportion".{{sfn|Delay|2004|p=197}} He continues in the book's preface: "All forms have their own dimensions which we must respect ... It must not be forgotten that such things belong to a universe whose harmony we must not break".{{sfn|Delay|2004|p=197}}

Hokusai returned to the image of The Great Wave a few years later when he produced Kaijo no Fuji for the second volume of One Hundred Views of Fuji. This print features the same relationship between the wave and the mountain, and the same burst of foam. There are no humans or boats in the latter image, and the wave fragments coincide with the flight of birds. While the wave in The Great Wave moves in the opposite direction of the Japanese reading – from right to left – the wave and birds in Kaijo no Fuji move in unison.{{cite web |title=Hokusai |url=http://classes.yale.edu/fractals/panorama/Art/Hokusai/Hokusai.html |website=Yale University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110908210222/http://classes.yale.edu/fractals/panorama/Art/Hokusai/Hokusai.html |archive-date=8 September 2011}}

The concept of perspective prints arrived in Japan in the 18th century. These prints rely on a single-point perspective rather than a traditional foreground, middle ground, and background, which Hokusai consistently rejected.{{sfn|Ives|1974|pp=74–76}} Objects in traditional Japanese painting and Far Eastern painting in general were not drawn in perspective but rather, as in ancient Egypt, the sizes of objects and figures were determined by the subject's importance within the context.{{sfn|Lane|1962|p=237}}

Perspective, which was first used in Western paintings by 15th-century artists Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca, was introduced to Japanese artists through Western – particularly Dutch – merchants arriving in Nagasaki. Okumura Masanobu and especially Utagawa Toyoharu made the first attempts to imitate the use of Western perspective, producing engravings depicting the canals of Venice or the ruins of ancient Rome in perspective as early as 1750.{{sfn|Delay|2004|p=173}}

Toyoharu's work greatly influenced Japanese landscape painting, which evolved with the works of Hiroshige – an indirect student of Toyoharu through Toyohiro – and Hokusai. Hokusai became acquainted with Western perspective in the 1790s through Shiba Kōkan's investigations, from whose teaching he benefited. Between 1805 and 1810, Hokusai published the series Mirror of Dutch Pictures – Eight Views of Edo.{{sfn|Bayou|2008|p=110}}

The Great Wave off Kanagawa would not have been as successful in the West if audiences did not have a sense of familiarity with the work. It has been interpreted as a Western play seen through the eyes of a Japanese. According to Richard Lane:

{{blockquote|Western students first seeing Japanese prints almost invariably settle upon these two late masters [Hokusai and Hiroshige] as representing the pinnacle of Japanese art, little realizing that part of what they admire is the hidden kinship they feel to their own Western tradition. Ironically enough, it was this very work of Hokusai and Hiroshige that helped to revitalize Western painting toward the end of the nineteenth century, through the admiration of the Impressionists and Post-impressionists.{{sfn|Lane|1962|p=233}}}}

File:Kajikazawa in Kai Province (Koshu Kajikazawa).jpg, "Kajikazawa in Kai Province", aizuri-e style]]

During the 1830s, Hokusai's prints underwent a "blue revolution", in which he made extensive use of the dark-blue pigment Prussian blue.{{sfn|Bayou|2008|p=144}} He used this shade of blue, which was resistant to fading, for The Great Wave off Kanagawa{{cite web |last1=Graham |first1=John |title=Hokusai and Hiroshige: Great Japanese Prints from the James A. Michener Collection at the Asian Art Museum |url=http://www.elfornio.com/JGwriting-blocks.html |website=UCSF Weekly |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090618061832/http://www.elfornio.com/JGwriting-blocks.html |archive-date=18 June 2009 |date=September 1999}} with indigo, the delicate, quickly fading shade of blue that was commonly used in ukiyo-e works at the time.

Prussian blue, also known in Japanese at the time as {{Nihongo|2=ベルリン藍|3=Berlin ai|4=abbreviated to bero ai (ベロ藍), literally "Berlin indigo"}},{{Cite web |title=浮世絵の風景を刷新した「ベロ藍」誕生秘話 |trans-title=The obscure origin of "Berlin indigo", the color that revolutionized scenes in ukiyo-e |url=https://www.adachi-hanga.com/hokusai/page/know_14 |access-date=4 August 2023 |website=www.adachi-hanga.com |language=ja |quote=日本ではその発祥地の名前をとって、「ベルリン藍」と呼びました。「ベルリン藍」を省略した「ベロ藍」の呼び名も広く知られています。[In Japan it was called "Berlin indigo", after its place of invention. The abbreviated form "bero ai" is also well known.] |archive-date=4 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230804032737/https://www.adachi-hanga.com/hokusai/page/know_14 |url-status=live }} was imported from Holland beginning in 1820, and was extensively used by Hiroshige and Hokusai after its arrival in Japan in large quantities in 1829.{{sfn|Bayou|2008|p=130}}

The first 10 prints in the series, including The Great Wave off Kanagawa, are among the first Japanese prints to feature Prussian blue, which was most likely suggested to the publisher in 1830. This innovation was an immediate success. In early January 1831, Hokusai's publisher Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudō) widely advertised the innovation,{{sfn|Bayou|2008|p=130}} and the following year published the next 10 prints in the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series, and unique for their predominantly-blue aizuri-e style, with Kōshū Kajikazawa ("Kajikazawa in Kai Province") being a notable example.{{sfn|Calza|2003|p=473}} In addition to the extensive use of Prussian blue, the outlines on these 10 supplementary prints, known collectively as ura Fuji ("Fuji seen from behind"), are sumi black with India ink.{{sfn|Bayou|2008|p=130}}

About 1,000 copies of The Great Wave off Kanagawa were initially printed, resulting in wear in later editions of print copies. It is estimated approximately 8,000 copies were eventually printed.{{efn|As Capucine Korenberg writes, "The number of impressions made from a given set of woodblocks was generally not recorded but it has been estimated that a publisher had to sell at least 2,000 impressions from a design to make a profit".}}{{cite web |last1=Korenberg |first1=Capucine |title=The making and evolution of Hokusai's Great Wave |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/sites/default/files/2022-03/korenberg_article-for_hokusai%20_edited_volume_final-2020_accessible.pdf |website=British Museum |access-date=16 June 2022 |archive-date=16 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616192059/https://www.britishmuseum.org/sites/default/files/2022-03/korenberg_article-for_hokusai%20_edited_volume_final-2020_accessible.pdf |url-status=live }} {{As of|2022}}, about 100 copies are known to survive.{{efn|Out of 111 copies of the print found by Korenberg, 26 have no discernible clouds.}}

The first signs of wear are in the pink and yellow of the sky, which fades more in worn copies, resulting in vanishing clouds, a more uniform sky, and broken lines around the box containing the title.{{sfn|Hillier|1970|p=230}}{{cite web |title=Under the Wave off Kanagawa |url=http://www.hokusai-katsushika.org/view-one-kanagawaoki-namiura.html |website=www.hokusai-katsushika.org |access-date=16 June 2022 |archive-date=14 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220214131822/https://www.hokusai-katsushika.org/view-one-kanagawaoki-namiura.html |url-status=live }} Some of the surviving copies have been damaged by light, as woodblock prints of the Edo period used light sensitive colourants. Collections housing the print include the Tokyo National Museum,{{cite web |title=HOKUSAI |url=https://www.tnm.jp/modules/r_free_page/index.php?id=476&lang=en |website=Tokyo National Museum |access-date=16 June 2022 |language=en |archive-date=6 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706172244/https://www.tnm.jp/modules/r_free_page/index.php?id=476&lang=en |url-status=live }} the Japan Ukiyo-e Museum in Matsumoto,{{cite web |title=Hokusai: the influential work of Japanese artist famous for "the great wave" – in pictures |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2017/jul/21/hokusai-the-influential-work-of-japanese-artist-famous-for-the-great-wave-in-pictures |website=The Guardian |date=20 July 2017 |access-date=21 May 2022 |archive-date=21 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521145633/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2017/jul/21/hokusai-the-influential-work-of-japanese-artist-famous-for-the-great-wave-in-pictures |url-status=live }} the British Museum in London,{{cite web |title=The Great Wave – print |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_2008-3008-1-JA |website=The British Museum |access-date=20 May 2022 |language=en |archive-date=31 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220531141632/https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_2008-3008-1-JA |url-status=live }} the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City,{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/asian_art/the_great_wave_at_kanagawa_from_a_series_of_thirty_six_katsushika_hokusai/objectview.aspx?collID=6&OID=60013238 |title=The Great Wave at Kanagawa (from a Series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji) |access-date=15 May 2022 |website=Metropolitan Museum of Art |archive-date=21 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121033317/http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/asian_art/the_great_wave_at_kanagawa_from_a_series_of_thirty_six_katsushika_hokusai/objectview.aspx?collID=6&OID=60013238 |url-status=live }} the Art Institute of Chicago,{{Cite journal |date=3 April 2019 |title=Seeing Triple: The Great Wave by Hokusai |url=https://www.artic.edu/articles/743/seeing-triple-the-great-wave-by-hokusai |access-date=17 June 2022 |website=Art Institute of Chicago |language=en |archive-date=1 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210501201432/https://www.artic.edu/articles/743/seeing-triple-the-great-wave-by-hokusai |url-status=live }} the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,{{cite web |title=The Great Wave off Kanagawa |url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/191278 |website=Los Angeles County Museum of Art |access-date=16 June 2022 |archive-date=9 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709153706/https://collections.lacma.org/node/191278 |url-status=live }} the Sackler Gallery in Washington D.C.,{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} the Giverny Museum of Impressionisms in Giverny, the Musée Guimet and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France both in Paris, the Edoardo Chiossone Museum of Oriental Art in Genoa, the Palazzo Maffei Casa Museo in Verona, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne,{{Cite web |title=Works {{!}} NGV {{!}} View Work |url=http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/22076/ |access-date=30 July 2023 |website=www.ngv.vic.gov.au |language=en-AU |archive-date=30 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230930104752/https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/22076/ |url-status=live }} the {{ill|Civico museo d'arte orientale|it}} in Trieste, the Museo d'arte orientale in Turin,{{cite web |title=Sous la vague au large de Kanagawa |url=http://expositions.bnf.fr/japonaises/grand/083.htm |website=Bibliothèque Nationale de France |access-date=21 May 2022 |archive-date=4 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104234324/http://expositions.bnf.fr/japonaises/grand/083.htm |url-status=live }}, the Bavarian State Library in Munich{{Cite web|url= https://www.artdependence.com/articles/bavarian-state-library-acquires-katsushika-hokusais-iconic-artwork-the-great-wave/|title= Bavarian State Library Acquires Katsushika Hokusai's Iconic Artwork 'The Great Wave|work= ArtDependence|date= 29 August 2023|access-date= 30 August 2023|archive-date= 30 August 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230830010254/https://www.artdependence.com/articles/bavarian-state-library-acquires-katsushika-hokusais-iconic-artwork-the-great-wave/|url-status= live}} and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Some private collections such as the Gale Collection also have copies.{{sfn|Hillier|1970|p=230}}

Nineteenth-century private collectors were frequently the source of museum collections of Japanese prints; for example, the copy in the Metropolitan Museum came from Henry Osborne Havemeyer's former collection, which his wife donated to the museum in 1929.{{sfn|Forrer|1991|p=43}} The copy in the Bibliothèque nationale de France came from the collection of Samuel Bing in 1888,{{sfn|Bibliothèque nationale de France|2008|p=216}} and the copy in the Musée Guimet is a bequest from {{ill|Raymond Koechlin|fr|Raymond Koechlin}}, who gave it to the museum in 1932.{{sfn|Bayou|2008|p=131}}

In 2023, one of the prints that had been held by a private family since the early 1900s and for a time was displayed at the Glyptotek, Copenhagen, was sold for a record price, 2.8 million dollars.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/great-wave-print-auction-77a48cbf|title=Iconic 'Great Wave' Print Sells for $2.8 Million at Christie's|first=Kelly|last=Crow|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|access-date=23 March 2023|archive-date=23 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230323073637/https://www.wsj.com/articles/great-wave-print-auction-77a48cbf|url-status=live}}

File:1952.343 - Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami.jpg|Print at the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Great Wave Hokusai BM 1906.1220.0.533 n01.jpg|Print at The British Museum

File:The Great Wave off Kanagawa LACMA M.81.91.2 (1 of 2).jpg|Print at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

File:Katsushika Hokusai - Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji- The Great Wave Off the Coast of Kanagawa - Google Art Project.jpg|Print at the Tokyo National Museum

File:Debussy - La Mer - The great wave of Kanaga from Hokusai.jpg's La Mer]]

File:The Wave (or Kanagawa) sculpture, Selsey - geograph.org.uk - 3527695.jpg Wave by the sculptor William Pye, at the entrance to Selsey, England, is a three-dimensional homage to The Great Wave off Kanagawa.]]

After the 1868 Meiji Restoration, Japan ended a long period of isolation and opened to imports from the West. In turn, much Japanese art was exported to Europe and America, and quickly gained popularity.{{cite web |title=Japonism Impressionism Exhibition in Giverny Impressionist Museum 2018 |url=https://giverny.org/museums/impressionism/exhibition/japonism/index.htm |website=Giverny Museum of Impressionisms |access-date=21 May 2022 |date=2018 |archive-date=20 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220033406/http://giverny.org/museums/impressionism/exhibition/japonism/index.htm |url-status=live }} The influence of Japanese art on Western culture became known as Japonisme. Japanese woodblock prints inspired Western artists in many genres, particularly the Impressionists.{{sfn|Bickford|1993|p=1}}

As the most famous Japanese print,{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=119}} The Great Wave off Kanagawa influenced great works: in painting, works by Claude Monet; in music,{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=121}} Claude Debussy's La Mer; and in literature, Rainer Maria Rilke's Der Berg.{{sfn|Cartwright|Nakamura|2009|p=119}}{{cite web |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/2014/debussy-la-mer |title=Hokusai and Debussy's Evocations of the Sea |date=22 July 2014 |first=Michael |last=Cirigliano II |website=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=16 June 2022 |archive-date=14 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314010529/https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/2014/debussy-la-mer |url-status=live }} Claude Debussy, who loved the sea and painted images of the Far East, kept a copy of The Great Wave off Kanagawa in his studio. During his work on La Mer, he was inspired by the print and asked for the image to be used on the cover of the original 1905 score.{{sfn|Kobayashi|1997|p=47}}{{sfn|Moore|1979|p=245}}{{sfn|Médicis|Huebner|2018|p=275}}

Henri Rivière, a draughtsman, engraver, and watercolourist who was also an important figure behind the Paris entertainment venue Le Chat Noir, was one of the first artists to be heavily influenced by Hokusai's work, particularly The Great Wave off Kanagawa. In homage to Hokusai's work, Rivière published a series of lithographs titled The Thirty-Six Views of the Eiffel Tower in 1902.{{sfn|Sueur-Hermel|2009|p=28}} Rivière was a collector of Japanese prints who purchased works from Siegfried Bing, Tadamasa Hayashi, and Florine Langweil.{{sfn|Sueur-Hermel|2009|p=26}}

Vincent van Gogh, a great admirer of Hokusai, praised the quality of drawing and use of line in The Great Wave off Kanagawa, and wrote it had a "terrifying" emotional impact.{{cite web|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let676/letter.html|title=Letter 676: To Theo van Gogh. Arles, Saturday, 8 September 1888|publisher=Van Gogh Museum|access-date=17 January 2017|archive-date=5 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161205092058/http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let676/letter.html|url-status=live}} French sculptor Camille Claudel's {{ill|La Vague|fr|La Vague (Camille Claudel)}} (1897) replaced the boats in Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa with three women dancing in a circle.{{cite web |title=The Wave or The Bathers |url=https://www.musee-rodin.fr/en/musee/collections/oeuvres/wave-or-bathers |website=Musée Rodin |access-date=16 June 2022 |archive-date=4 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220604160012/https://www.musee-rodin.fr/en/musee/collections/oeuvres/wave-or-bathers |url-status=live }}

William Pye's sculpture "Kanagawa" was inspired by the work of Hokusai, who Pye says was influenced by "the immense power of nature as manifested in great waves on the sea". He suggests that people are "free to interpret [his sculpture] in any way they wish, be it as a wake-up call to implement sea defenses or as a memorial to those who have suffered at the hands of the sea". He also says that "he was driven by the sheer beauty of wave forms and the challenge of capturing this in bronze".{{cite web |author=Art UK |year=2024 |title=Kanagawa or 'The Wave' |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/kanagawa-or-the-wave-314517 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240823153933/https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/kanagawa-or-the-wave-314517 |archive-date=23 August 2024 |access-date=24 August 2024 |publisher=ArtUK}}{{cite web |author=Trustees of the National Heritage Memorial Fund |year=2017 |title=Sculpture Collection |url=https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/news/uks-publicly-owned-sculpture-collection-be-catalogued-digitally |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240824161746/https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/news/uks-publicly-owned-sculpture-collection-be-catalogued-digitally |archive-date=August 24, 2024 |access-date=24 August 2024 |publisher=Trustees of the National Heritage Memorial Fund}}

Wayne Crothers, the curator of a 2017 Hokusai exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, described The Great Wave off Kanagawa as "possibly the most reproduced image in the history of all art" while the Wall Street Journal's Ellen Gamerman wrote it "may be the most famous artwork in Japanese history".{{cite web |last1=Wood |first1=Patrick |title=Is this the most reproduced artwork in history? |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-20/hokusai-the-wave:-is-this-the-most-reproduced-artwork/8720070 |publisher=ABC News |access-date=20 May 2022 |language=en-AU |date=20 July 2017 |archive-date=9 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109032529/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-20/hokusai-the-wave:-is-this-the-most-reproduced-artwork/8720070 |url-status=live }}{{cite news|work=The Wall Street Journal|title=How Hokusai's "The Great Wave" Went Viral|date=18 March 2015|first=Ellen|last=Gamerman|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-hokusais-the-great-wave-went-viral-1426698151|access-date=11 March 2017|archive-date=12 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170112193920/http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-hokusais-the-great-wave-went-viral-1426698151|url-status=live}} Hiroshige paid homage to The Great Wave off Kanagawa with his print The Sea off Satta in Suruga Province{{cite web |title=print |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1902-0212-0-396-25 |website=The British Museum |access-date=14 June 2022 |language=en |archive-date=14 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220614223451/https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1902-0212-0-396-25 |url-status=live }} while French artist Gustave-Henri Jossot produced a satirical painting in the style of The Great Wave off Kanagawa to mock the popularity of Japonisme.{{cite web |title=La vague (The Wave), 1894 |url=https://collections.artsmia.org/art/55701/la-vague-henri-gustave-jossot |publisher=Minneapolis Institute of Art |access-date=14 June 2022 |archive-date=16 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211116164251/https://collections.artsmia.org/art/55701/la-vague-henri-gustave-jossot |url-status=live }}

Many modern artists have reinterpreted and adapted the image. Indigenous Australian artist Lin Onus used The Great Wave off Kanagawa as the basis for his 1992 painting Michael and I are just slipping down to the pub for a minute.{{sfn|Ashcroft|2013|p=11}} A work named Uprisings by Japanese-American artist Kozyndan is based on the print; the foam of the wave is replaced with rabbits.{{cite web |title='Uprisings', 2018 |url=https://www.artsy.net/artwork/kozyndan-uprisings |website=www.artsy.net |access-date=20 May 2022 |archive-date=20 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220520212618/https://www.artsy.net/artwork/kozyndan-uprisings |url-status=live }} On computer operating systems designed by Apple Inc., the emoji character for a water wave (🌊) strongly resembles the wave depicted in the print.{{cite news|last=Nakamura|first=Amy|date=26 May 2022|title=This is America: The cultural significance behind these emojis|work=USA Today|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/05/26/aapi-month-japanese-culture-emojis/9916959002/|access-date=25 February 2024|archive-date=16 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231216195133/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/05/26/aapi-month-japanese-culture-emojis/9916959002/|url-status=live}} In 2022 the Bank of Japan announced The Great Wave off Kanagawa's inclusion in a redesign of Japan's banknotes to begin circulation in 2024.{{Cite web|url=https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/430/|title=Japanese banknotes get a makeover|work=NHK World-Japan|accessdate=10 December 2022|archive-date=22 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922170515/https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/430/|url-status=live}}

File:Nichiren bezweert de golven bij Kakuda tijdens zijn verbanning naar Sado.-Rijksmuseum RP-P-1956-717.jpeg|Monk Nichiren Calming the Stormy Sea by Utagawa Kuniyoshi ({{circa|1835}})

File:23 - The Sea off Satta.jpg|The Sea off Satta in Suruga Province by Hiroshige (1858)

File:Henri-Gustave Jossot - The Wave - 1994.302 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|The Wave, lithograph by Gustave-Henri Jossot (1894)

File:New 1000 yen banknote reverse.png|Japanese 1,000 yen banknote issued in 2024

Special television programmes and documentaries about The Great Wave off Kanagawa have been produced; these include the 30-minute, French-language documentary La menace suspendue: La Vague (1995){{cite web |title=Hokusai "la menace suspendue" – Documentaire (1995) – SensCritique |url=https://www.senscritique.com/film/Hokusai_la_menace_suspendue/28984126 |website=senscritique.com |access-date=22 May 2022 |language=fr |archive-date=22 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220522135513/https://www.senscritique.com/film/Hokusai_la_menace_suspendue/28984126 |url-status=live }} and a 2004 English-language special programme part of the BBC series The Private Life of a Masterpiece.{{cite web | url = http://www.fulmartv.co.uk/PLMasterpiece10.shtml | title="The Great Wave" by Hokusai | publisher = Fulmartv.co.uk | date = 17 April 2004 | access-date = 4 July 2010 | url-status=usurped | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100722005321/http://www.fulmartv.co.uk/PLMasterpiece10.shtml | archive-date = 22 July 2010 }} The Great Wave off Kanagawa is also the subject of the 93rd episode of the BBC Radio series A History of the World in 100 Objects produced in collaboration with the British Museum, which was released on 4 September 2010.{{cite web |title=BBC – A History of the World – Object : Hokusai's "The Great Wave" |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/MAPlqOEHRsmI1awIHQzRSQ |website=BBC |access-date=20 May 2022 |archive-date=13 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513200915/https://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/MAPlqOEHRsmI1awIHQzRSQ |url-status=live }} A replica of The Great Wave off Kanagawa was created for a documentary film about Hokusai released by the British Museum in 2017.{{cite web |last1=Wheatley |first1=Patricia |title=Hokusai in Ultra HD: Great Wave, big screen |url=https://blog.britishmuseum.org/hokusai-in-ultra-hd-great-wave-big-screen/ |website=British Museum |access-date=16 June 2022 |date=2 June 2017 |archive-date=16 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616192101/https://blog.britishmuseum.org/hokusai-in-ultra-hd-great-wave-big-screen/ |url-status=live }}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|25em}}

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• {{cite book |last1=Ives |first1=Colta Feller |title=The Great Wave: the Influence of Japanese Woodcuts on French Prints |date=1974 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-0-87099-228-5 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Kikuchi |first1=Sadao |last2=Kenny |first2=Don |year=1969 |title=A Treasury of Japanese Wood Block Prints (Ukiyo-e) |publisher=Crown Publishers |oclc=21250}}
• {{cite book |last1=Kobayashi |first1=Tadashi |editor1-last=Harbison |editor1-first=Mark A. |title=Ukiyo-e: An Introduction to Japanese Woodblock Prints |date=1997 |publisher=Kodansha International|isbn=978-4-7700-2182-3 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Lane |first1=Richard |author1-link=Richard Douglas Lane |title=Masters of the Japanese Print, Their World and Their Work |date=1962 |publisher=Creative Media Partners, LLC |isbn=978-1-01-530023-1 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |editor1-last=Médicis |editor1-first=François de |editor2-last=Huebner |editor2-first=Steven |title=Debussy's Resonance |date=2018 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1-58046-525-0}}
• {{cite book |last1=Moore |first1=Janet Gaylord |title=The Eastern Gate: An Invitation to the Arts of China and Japan |date=1979 |publisher=Collins |isbn=978-0-529-05434-0 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Nagata |first1=Seiji |title=Hokusai: Genius of the Japanese Ukiyo-e |date=1995 |publisher=Kodansha |isbn=978-4-7700-1928-8 |language=en}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Ornes |first1=Stephen |title=Science and Culture: Dissecting the "Great Wave" |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |date=2014 |volume=111 |issue=37 |pages=13245 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1413975111 |pmid=25228754 |pmc=4169912 |bibcode=2014PNAS..11113245O |issn=0027-8424|doi-access=free }}
• {{cite book |last=Penkoff |first=Ronald |title=Roots of the Ukiyo-e; Early Woodcuts of the Floating World |year=1964 |publisher=Ball State Teachers College |url=http://dmr.bsu.edu/utils/getfile/collection/BSMngrph/id/11/filename/2.pdf |oclc=681751700 |access-date=21 May 2022 |archive-date=2 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602165548/http://dmr.bsu.edu/utils/getfile/collection/BSMngrph/id/11/filename/2.pdf |url-status=live }}
• {{cite book|last=Salter|first=Rebecca|title=Japanese Woodblock Printing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WqmzsLn9ww0C|year=2001|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-2553-9|access-date=21 May 2022|archive-date=17 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517225615/https://books.google.com/books?id=WqmzsLn9ww0C|url-status=live}}
• {{cite book |last1=Sueur-Hermel |first1=Valérie |title=Henri Rivière: entre impressionnisme et japonisme |date=2009 |publisher=Bibliothèque nationale de France |location=Paris |language=fr |isbn=978-2-7177-2431-8}}
• {{cite journal |last=Singer |first=Robert T. |title=Japanese Painting of the Edo Period |journal=Archaeology |volume=39 |issue=2 |date=March–April 1986 |pages=64–67 |publisher=Archaeological Institute of America |jstor=41731745}}
• {{cite book |last1=Weston |first1=Mark |author-link1=Mark Weston (journalist) |title=Giants of Japan: The Lives of Japan's Greatest Men and Women |date=2002 |publisher=Kodansha International |isbn=978-1-56836-324-0 |language=en}}

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• [http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/asian_art/The_Great_Wave_at_Kanagawa_from_a_Series_of_Thirty_six_Katsushika_Hokusai/ViewObject.aspx?depNm=asian_art&Title=The_Great_Wave_at_Kanagawa_from_a_Series_of_Thirty_six_Katsushika_Hokusai&pID=-1&kWd=great%20wave&OID=60013238&vW=-1&Pg=1&St=0&StOd=1&vT=3 The Metropolitan Museum of Art's (New York) entry on The Great Wave at Kanagawa]
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/MAPlqOEHRsmI1awIHQzRSQ "Hokusai's 'The Great Wave{{'"}}]—Episode from the BBC show A History of the World in 100 Objects
• [http://www.hokusai-katsushika.org/view-one-kanagawaoki-namiura.html Study of original work opposed to various copies from different publishers]
• [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK-Wicsj5rAasS2g7e-Z9eFUdG6I7ZqED The Great Wave (making the woodblock print)]—Step-by-step video series on recreating the work by David Bull
• [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_2017-3069-1 Replica of The Great Wave made by Suga Kayoko for a documentary film by the British Museum]

{{Hokusai}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Wave Off Kanagawa, The}}

Category:1831 works

Category:Asian objects in the British Museum

Category:Marine art

Category:Water in art

Category:Water waves in culture

Category:Works by Hokusai