The Great Wave off Kanagawa

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Lore & Background

Hokusai began painting when he was six years old, and when he was twelve his father sent him to work in a book shop. 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 the artist Katsukawa Shunshō, one of the greatest ukiyo-e artists of his time. 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. During this period he began to use the name Hokusai; during his life he would use more than 30 pseudonyms. In 1804 Hokusai rose to prominence when he created a 240-square-metre 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. Hokusai died in 1849 at the age of 89.

Reader's Guide

The Great Wave off Kanagawa is a landscape-format yoko-e print produced in an ōban size of 25 cm × 37 cm. The landscape is composed of three elements: a stormy sea, three boats, and a mountain. The scene shows three oshiokuri-bune, fast barges used to transport live fish from the Izu and Bōsō peninsulas to markets in Edo Bay. According to analysis by Cartwright and Nakamura (2009), the boats are located in Edo (Tokyo) Bay off 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. Each boat has eight rowers holding their oars, with two more relief crew members at the front; 30 men are represented but only 22 are visible. The oshiokuri-bune were generally between 12 and 15 metres long, and taking into account Hokusai reduced the vertical scale by 30%, the wave is between 10 and 12 metres high. The print has been described as 'possibly the most reproduced image in the history of all art' and a contender for the 'most famous artwork in Japanese history'. It influenced several Western artists and musicians, including Claude Debussy, Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet. Hokusai's younger colleagues Hiroshige and Utagawa Kuniyoshi were inspired to make their own wave-centric works. Only about 100 prints, in varying conditions, are thought to have survived into the 21st century. Several museums throughout the world hold copies, many of which came from 19th-century private collections of Japanese prints.

Did You Know?

• The print was created in late 1831 during the Edo period of Japanese history.
• Hokusai used more than 30 pseudonyms during his life.
• The wave is between 10 and 12 metres high, based on the boats' size and Hokusai's 30% vertical scale reduction.
• Only about 100 prints, in varying conditions, are thought to have survived into the 21st century.
• The print's composition synthesises traditional Japanese prints with European graphical perspective.