Katsushika Hokusai. Lery of Victoria in Melbourne, and in Claude Monet’S Hom E in Giverny, France, Among Many Other Collections

The Great Wave off Kanagawa(Kanagawa-oki nami ura, “Under a wave o ff Kanagawa”), also known as The Great Wave or simply The Wave, is a w oodblock print by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai. It was published so metime between 1829 and 1833 in the late Edo period as the first print inH okusai’s series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. It is Hokusai’s most famous work, and one of the most recognizable works of Japanese art in the world. The image depicts an enormous wave threatening boats off the coast of th e town of Kanagawa (the present-day city of Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefe cture). While sometimes assumed to be a tsunami, the wave is more like ly to be a large rogue wave.[2] As in many of the prints in the series, it d epicts the area around Mount Fuji under particular conditions, and the mountain itself appears in the background. Original impressions of t he print are in many Western collections, including the Metropolit

「富嶽三十六景 an Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Art Institute of Chica go, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Gal 神奈川沖浪裏」 Wave. Great The Katsushika Hokusai. lery of Victoria in Melbourne, and in Claude Monet’s hom e in Giverny, France, among many other collections. Ho kusai began painting when he was six years old. At a ge twelve, his father sent him to work at a bookselle rs. At sixteen, he was apprenticed as an engraver a nd spent three years learning the trade. At the sa me time he began to produce his own illustrtio ns. At eighteen he was accepted as an appre ntice to Katsukawa Shunshō, one of the fore most ukiyo-e artists of the time. In 1804 h e became famous as an artist when, dur ing a festival in Tokyo, he completed a 240m² painting of a Buddhist monk n amed Daruma. In 1814, he publishe d the first of fifteen volumes of sket ches entitled Manga. His Thirty-s ix Views of Mount Fuji, from whi ch The Great Wave comes, wa s produced from c. 1830. This print is a yoko-e, that is, a la ndscape format produced t o the ōban size, about 25c m high by 37 cm wide. T he composition compris es three main elements: the sea whipped up by a storm, three boats an d a mountain. It include s the signature in the u pper-left-hand corner. The mountain with a s now-capped peak is Mount Fuji, which in J apan is considered sa cred and a symbol of national identity, as w ell as a symbol of bea.. uty. Mount Fuji is an ic onic figure in many Japanese repre sentations of famous pl aces (meisho-e), as is the case in Hokusa i’s series of Thirty-six Vie w of Mount Fuji. which opens with the presen t scene. The dark color ar ound Mount Fuji seems to indicate that the scene o rs early in the morning, with ound Mount Fuji seems to the sun rising from behind ountain’s snowy peak. While the sun rising from behind the observer, illuminating the m ountain’s snowy peak. While cumulonimbus storm clouds seem to be hanging in the sky b etween the viewer and Mount F uji, no rain is to be seen either in the foreground scene or on Mount Fuji, which itself appears c ompletely cloudl n the scene there are three oshiokuri -bune, fast boats that are used to transport l ive fish romf the Izu and Bōsō peninsulas to the markets of t he bay of Edo. As the name of the piec e indicates the boats are in Kanagawa prefecture, with Tokyo to the north, Mt Fuji to the northwest, the bay of Sagami to the south and the bay of Tokyo to the ea st. Th e bo ats, oriented to the southeast, are re turning to the capital. There are eight rowers per boat, clinging to the ir oars . There are two more passengers in the front of each boat, bringing the total number of human figures in the image to thirty. Using the boats as reference, one can appro ximate the size of the wave: the oshiokuri-bune were generally betwee n 12 and 15 meters long, and noting that Hokusai re duced the vertical scale by 30%, the wave must be between 10 an d 12 meters tall. The sea dominates the composition as e xtending wave about to break. In the moment captured in thi s imag e, the wave forms a circle around the center of the d esign, framing Mount Fuji in the background. Edmond de Gou rt described the wave in this way: The drawing of th e wave is a deification of the sea made by a painter who l gou ived with the religious terror of the overwhelming oc ean completely surrounding his country; He is impressed by the sudd en fury of the ocean’s leap toward the sky, by the de splash of its claw-like crest as it sprays forth droplets. Andre a Ra mous, a writer, notes: ... a seascape with Fuji. The waves for m a frame through which we see the mountain. The giga ntic wave is a yin yang of empty space beneath the mountain. The inevit able breaking that we await creates a tension in the picture. In the foregr ound ound, a small wave forming a miniature Fuji is reflected

by the distant mountain, itself shrunk in perspective. The lil tle wave is l arger than the mountain. The small fishermenThe Great Wavealways been has considered cling to thin fishin g boats, slide on a sea-mount looking to dodge the wave. The violent Yang of nature is overcome by the yin of the confidence of these experi

enced fishermen. Strangely, despite------a storm, the sun shines high. he Great Wave off Kanagawa has two inscriptions. The first, within a rectan gular cartouche in the top-left corner is the series title: Fugaku Sanjūrokkei / Kanagawa oki / nami ura, which translates as “Thirty-six Vie famous artists' drawing ,no matter style

s of Mount Fuji / Offshore from Kanagawa / Beneath the wave”. The second inscription,It's and skills techniques influence many to the left, is the artist’s signature: Hokusai aratam e itsu hitsu, (“From the brush of Hokusai, changing his name to Iitsu”). Over his career, Hokusai used more than 30 different names, alw ays beginning a new cycle of works by changing it, and letting his students use the previous name. In his work Thirty-Six Views of M ount Fuji he used four distinct signatures, changing it according to the phase of the work: Hokusai aratameas one of most the Japenese successful Iitsu hitsu, zen Hokusai, Iitsu hitsu, Hokusai Iitsu hitsu and zen saki no Hokusai Iitsu hitsu. In Japanese woodblock printing the artist’s final preparatory ske ch (shita-e) is taken to a horishi, or block carver, who glues the thin washi paper to a block of wood, usually cherry, and then caref artworks though long the Japanese ully carves it away to form a relief of the linethough extensive the and profound s of the image. In the process, the drawing is lost. Finally, with all the necessary blocks ( usually one for each color), a surishi, or printer, who places the printing paper on each block consecutively and rubs the back with a h The Metropolitan Museum of Art and-tool known as a baren. There could be a great number of impressions produced, sometimes thousands, before the blocks wore out.B ecause of the nature of the production process, the final work was usually the result of a collaboration in which the painter generally did not ecause of the nature of the production process, the final work was usually the result of a collaboration in which the painter generally did not p articipate in the production of the prints. The design uses only a small number of different color blocks. The water is rendered with three shad es of blue; the boats are yellow; a dark grey for the sky behind Fuji and on the boat immediately below; a pale grey in the sky above Fuji and o n the foreground boat; pink clouds at the top of the image. “The blockIt is like of apearl history art for these pink clouds seems to have been slightly abraded along parts of the edge to give a subtle gradated effect (ita-bokashi)”. Even though no law of intellectual property existed in Japan before the Meiji era, there was still a sense of ownership and rights with respect to the blocks from which the prints were produced. Rather than belonging to the artist, the

blocks were considered the property of the hanmoto (publisher) or honya (pubEstern or Western artists. lisher/bookseller) who could do with them as he wished. In som

e cases the blocks were sold or transferred to other publishers,that shinningly does well in which case they became known as kyūhan. Given that the series was very popular when it was produced, printing continued until the woodblocks started to show significant wear. It is likely that the original woodbl ocks printed around 5,000 copies. Given that many impressions have been lost, in wars, earthquakes, fires and other natural disasters, few early impressions survive in which the lines of the woodblocks were still sharp at the time of printing. The remaining prints and subsequen t reproductions vary considerably in quality and condition. Later impressions typically have a darker grey sky, and can be identified by a break in the line of the wave behind the boat on the right. The highest price paid for a Great Wave print in a public sale is a relatively low

$160,000. Hokusai’s auction record is nearlyhuman civilization. $1.5 million as of 2012. The print owned by the British Museum cost £130,000 in 2008 and is on ly on display for six months every five years to prevent fading. The print is one of the most reproduced and most instantly recognized art works in the world. Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan ended a long period of national isolation and became open to imports from the West. In turn, much Japanese art came to Europe and America and quickly gained popularity. The influence of Japanese art o n Western culture became known as Japonism. Japanese woodblock prints became a source of inspiration for artists in many ge nres, particularly the Impressionists. Hokusai was seen as the emblematic Japanese artist and images from his prints and books influenced many different works. Vincent van Gogh, a great admirer of Hokusai, praised the quality of drawing and use of l ine in the Great Wave, and said it had a terrifying emotional impact. French sculptor Camille Claudel’s La Vague (1897) re places the boats in Hokusai’s Great Wave with sea-nymphs. The image inspired Claude Debussy’s orchestral work, La m er, and appeared on the cover of the score’s first edition published by A. Durand & Fils in 1905 Indigenous Australian art history.art artist Lin Onus used the Great Wave as the basis for his 1992 painting Michael and I are just slipping down the pub fo r a minute. An artistic work named Uprisings by Japanese/American Artist Kozyndan is based on the print, with the foam of the wave being replaced by bunnies. Apple macOS and iOS display a small version of the Great Wave as t he image for the Water Wave emoji. The logo used by the Quiksilver clothing company was inspired by the Gr eat Wave. In the card game Magic: The Gathering, two cards reference The Great Wave off Kanagawa in thei r artwork: Rampant Growth and Kiora, The Crashing Wave. The image is featured on a limited mintage 201 7 legal tender coin for the Republic of Fiji, as created by Scottsdale Mint. The image (reversed and recolorized) s featured on Kitchens of Distinction’s album Strange Free World. A popular internet parody of the image,title d “Sea is for Cookie”, was created for a Reddit Adobe Photoshop competition. The piece features the wave with googly eyes and cookies in the crest, resembling Cookie Monster eating cookies. The print is the sub jects of two art documentary series : La Menace suspendue, Palettes by Alain Jaubert (France, 1999).; T he Great Wave, The Private Life of a Masterpiece (BBC, 2004). It details the fascination surrounding t he work in the East and West, its influence, and the artist’s insights into a number of different area as revealed through the work. NOTES: A “rough sea screen” features in one of Hokusai’s earlie st works, Segawa Kikunojo III as Masamune’s Daughter, Oren, printed over fifty years before the Great Wave; In early prints of the Great Wave the key-block, usually only used for outli nes, is simultaneously used to print the dark-blue areas of the waves. The pale red seen on the sides of two of the boats in the frequently reproduced Metropolitan Museum pr The Great Wave off Kanagawa(Kanagawa-oki nami ura, “Under a wave o ff Kanagawa”), also known as The Great Wave or simply The Wave, is a w oodblock print by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai. It was published so metime between 1829 and 1833 in the late Edo period as the first print inH okusai’s series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. It is Hokusai’s most famous work, and one of the most recognizable works of Japanese art in the world. The image depicts an enormous wave threatening boats off the coast of th e town of Kanagawa (the present-day city of Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefe cture). While sometimes assumed to be a tsunami, the wave is more like ly to be a large rogue wave.[2] As in many of the prints in the series, it d epicts the area around Mount Fuji under particular conditions, and the mountain itself appears in the background. Original impressions of t he print are in many Western collections, including the Metropolit

s of Mount Fuji / Offshore from Kanagawa / Beneath the wave”. The second inscription,It's and skills techniques influence many to the left, is the artist’s signature: Hokusai aratam e itsu hitsu, (“From the brush of Hokusai, changing his name to Iitsu”). Over his career, Hokusai used more than 30 different names, alw ays beginning a new cycle of works by changing it, and letting his students use the previous name. In his work Thirty-Six Views of M ount Fuji he used four distinct signatures, changing it according to the phase of the work: Hokusaias one of most the Japenese successful aratame Iitsu hitsu, zen Hokusai, Iitsu hitsu, Hokusai Iitsu hitsu and zen saki no Hokusai Iitsu hitsu. In Japanese woodblock printing the artist’s final preparatory ske ch (shita-e) is taken to a horishi, or block carver, who glues the thin washi paper to a block of wood, usually cherry, and then caref artworks though long the Japanese ully carves it away to form a relief of the linethough extensive the and profound s of the image. In the process, the drawing is lost. Finally, with all the necessary blocks ( usually one for each color), a surishi, or printer, who places the printing paper on each block consecutively and rubs the back with a h and-tool known as a baren.The Metropolitan Museum of Art There could be a great number of impressions produced, sometimes thousands, before the blocks wore out.B ecause of the nature of the production process, the final work was usually the result of a collaboration in which the painter generally did not ecause of the nature of the production process, the final work was usually the result of a collaboration in which the painter generally did not p articipate in the production of the prints. The design uses only a small number of different color blocks. The water is rendered with three shad es of blue; the boats are yellow; a dark grey for the sky behind Fuji and on the boat immediately below; a pale grey in the sky above Fuji and o n the foreground boat; pink clouds at the top of the image. “The blockIt is like of apearl history art for these pink clouds seems to have been slightly abraded along parts of the edge to give a subtle gradated effect (ita-bokashi)”. Even though no law of intellectual property existed in Japan before the Meiji era, there was still a sense of ownership and rights with respect to the blocks from which the prints were produced. Rather than belonging to the artist, the

blocks were considered the property of the hanmoto (publisher) or honya Estern or(pub Western artists. lisher/bookseller) who could do with them as he wished. In som

$160,000. Hokusai’s auction record is nearlyhuman civilization. $1.5 million as of 2012. The print owned by the British Museum cost £130,000 in 2008 and is on ly on display for six months every five years to prevent fading. The print is one of the most reproduced and most instantly recognized art works in the world. Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan ended a long period of national isolation and became open to imports from the West. In turn, much Japanese art came to Europe and America and quickly gained popularity. The influence of Japanese art o n Western culture became known as Japonism. Japanese woodblock prints became a source of inspiration for artists in many ge nres, particularly the Impressionists. Hokusai was seen as the emblematic Japanese artist and images from his prints and books influenced many different works. Vincent van Gogh, a great admirer of Hokusai, praised the quality of drawing and use of l ine in the Great Wave, and said it had a terrifying emotional impact. French sculptor Camille Claudel’s La Vague (1897) re places the boats in Hokusai’s Great Wave with sea-nymphs. The image inspired Claude Debussy’s orchestral work, La m er, and appeared on the cover of the score’s first edition published by A. Durand & Fils in 1905 Indigenous Australian artist Lin Onus used the Great Wave as the basis for his 1992 painting history.art Michael and I are just slipping down the pub fo r a minute. An artistic work named Uprisings by Japanese/American Artist Kozyndan is based on the print, with the foam of the wave being replaced by bunnies. Apple macOS and iOS display a small version of the Great Wave as t he image for the Water Wave emoji. The logo used by the Quiksilver clothing company was inspired by the Gr eat Wave. In the card game Magic: The Gathering, two cards reference The Great Wave off Kanagawa in thei r artwork: Rampant Growth and Kiora, The Crashing Wave. The image is featured on a limited mintage 201 7 legal tender coin for the Republic of Fiji, as created by Scottsdale Mint. The image (reversed and recolorized) s featured on Kitchens of Distinction’s album Strange Free World. A popular internet parody of the image,title d “Sea is for Cookie”, was created for a Reddit Adobe Photoshop competition. The piece features the wave with googly eyes and cookies in the crest, resembling Cookie Monster eating cookies. The print is the sub jects of two art documentary series : La Menace suspendue, Palettes by Alain Jaubert (France, 1999).; T he Great Wave, The Private Life of a Masterpiece (BBC, 2004). It details the fascination surrounding t he work in the East and West, its influence, and the artist’s insights into a number of different area as revealed through the work. NOTES: A “rough sea screen” features in one of Hokusai’s earlie st works, Segawa Kikunojo III as Masamune’s Daughter, Oren, printed over fifty years before the Great Wave; In early prints of the Great Wave the key-block, usually only used for outli nes, is simultaneously used to print the dark-blue areas of the waves. The pale red seen on the sides of two of the boats in the frequently reproduced Metropolitan Museum pr