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The Great Wave (Under the Wave off Kanagawa)
Katsushika Hokusai, ca. 1830–32
This is one of the most reproduced images in art history. Katsushika Hokusai made it around 1830 to 1832, when he was in his seventies, as part of the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. The Japanese title, Kanagawa oki nami ura, means roughly Under the Wave off Kanagawa.
It shows three boats rowed through a rough sea, with a huge wave curling above them like a claw. Mount Fuji is small and calm in the background, and it is easy to miss at first. The wave and the mountain have a similar shape, which links the two. The deep blue comes from Prussian blue, a pigment newly imported into Japan then, and it helped make the series popular.
The print is made from carved wooden blocks, one for each colour, and was printed in large numbers. That is why many museums around the world own impressions of it, including this one at the Met, which measures about 26 by 38 centimetres. The design mixes traditional Japanese print style with a use of perspective that Hokusai had seen in European images, and it was later admired by European artists.
From the museum record
| Artist | Katsushika Hokusai |
|---|---|
| Date | ca. 1830–32 |
| Medium | Woodblock print; ink and color on paper |
| Size | 10 1/8 x 14 15/16 in. (25.7 x 37.9 cm) |
| Museum | The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
| Credit line | H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 |
| Accession number | JP1847 |
| Licence | Open Access (CC0) |
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art collection record. Facts such as dates, sizes and credit lines come from that record. The write-up above was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the museum record and standard references. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
