https://www.artic.edu/articles/1139/10-things-to-know-about-the-great-wave Skip to Content Primary Navigation * Visit [navigation-thumbnail-visit] Visit Find all the information you need--plus helpful tips--to plan your visit Start planning + Hours + Admission + Plan Your Visit Plan Your Visit o Museum Map o Free Daily Tours o My Museum Tour o What to See in an Hour o Shopping and Dining o Accessibility + Who's Visiting? Who's Visiting? o First-Time Visitors o Families o Members o Teens o Educators o Group Visits + Mobile App + Ryan Learning Center * Exhibitions Exhibitions + Current + Upcoming + Archive * Art & Artists [navigation-thumbnail-art-and-arti] Art & Artists Explore the works in our collection and delve deeper into their stories. Start your discovery + Artworks + Articles & Videos + Research Research o Library o Archival Collections o Collection Information o Conservation and Science + Publications Publications o Print Catalogues o Digital Publications * Events [navigation-thumbnail-events] Events Join us for a wide range of programs--there's something for visitors of all ages. Check out the calendar + Calendar + Daily Tours + Talks + Art Making + Member Programs * Become a Member * Featured Exhibition Learn more Secondary Navigation * Buy Tickets * Become a Member * Shop * Visit Menu Hokusai Great Wave Hokusai Great Wave 10+ Things to Know about The Great Wave Collection Spotlight Katsushika Hokusai. Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave (detail), 1830/33. Clarence Buckingham Collection. Share * * August 27, 2024 If not the most famous artwork in the world, it is certainly one of the most famous. The image--created by legendary Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai nearly 200 years ago--has been turned into an emoji, is appearing on a Japanese bank note this year, and has inspired countless artists across decades. With the iconic artwork returning to the Art Institute's galleries this fall (on view September 5-January 6), we're taking a look--with help from Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Associate Curator of Japanese Arts--at the facts behind the ever-fascinating work. 1. The Great Wave is a print. Katz notes, "People don't always realize that it's not a painting but a print that was commercially produced for the mass market. Originally thousands of copies and different editions were produced over a period of many years, even after the artist's lifetime. And while only about 100 original prints are thought to survive to this day, the Art Institute is fortunate to have three prints of The Great Wave, all original editions. All Three Art Institute Great Waves Hokusai Great Wave Great Wave 1952 343 G61639 Int Hokusai Great Wave 2. The Great Wave is not the print's actual title. It's an English nickname. The title, which appears on the print in the upper left, is Kanagawa oki nami ura, which translates to Under the Wave off Kanagawa. Hokusai Great Wave The title of the series and print appear in the rectangular cartouche, and the artist's signature is to the left. 3. Because it's a work on paper, The Great Wave is only on view for three to four months every five years. Japanese woodblock prints are particularly affected by exposure to light that can fade their colors and damage the paper they're printed on. "It's always a balancing act between wanting to show works like The Great Wave so that our visitors have a chance to experience them and preserving these works for the future," Katz says. "We work closely with our conservators to set the parameters for the display of works on paper." 4. The Great Wave is one of a series of prints designed by Hokusai that feature views of Mount Fuji. Though rather diminutive in The Great Wave, the famous peak and still-active volcano is central to the print and the entire series, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, which captures the mountain from various angles, in different seasons, and in all sorts of weather. Sometimes the peak is clearly the star, almost filling the entire composition, and other times, like in The Great Wave, one has to hunt for it far off in the distance. The series was so successful that an additional 10 prints were added just a few years after the original 36, and eventually a three-volume book was published, One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji. A Few of the Views of Mount Fuji A work made of color woodblock print, oban. Shower Below the Summit (Sanka hakuu), from the series "Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)", c. 1830/33 Katsushika Hokusai A work made of color woodblock print; oban. Beneath Mannen Bridge in Fukagawa (Fukagawa Mannenbashi shita) from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)", c. 1830/33 Katsushika Hokusai A print shows a small caravan of travelers, with a horse and figures in a litter, journeying on a road in the foreground. Two of the figures wear wide, bowl-shaped hats, and one of them is shirtless. Another sits beside the litter, which is resting on the ground. Spindly trees, an open plain, and a lone snow-capped mountain in the distance make up the landscape, rendered in tones of light orange, deep blue, and deep green. Hodogaya on the Tokaido (Tokaido Hodogaya), from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)", c. 1830/33 Katsushika Hokusai A work made of color woodblock print. Tagonoura Bay near Ejiri on the Tokaido (Tokaido Ejiri Tagonoura ryakuzu), from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei), 1830-33 Katsushika Hokusai Print shows a sweeping perspective view of a wide expanse of land and water rendered in pastel shades of yellow, green, and blue, the land cutting paths between pools. Figures work along these paths, beneath straw-roofed structures, and in fields. A lone snowy mountain rises in the distance, and clouds encroach upon the scene from the right. The Tea Plantation of Katakura in Suruga Province (Sunshu Katakura chaen no Fuji), from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)", c. 1830/33 Katsushika Hokusai A work made of color woodblock print; oban. Umezawa Marsh in Sagami Province (Soshu Umezawa hidari), from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)", c. 1830 /33 Katsushika Hokusai A work made of color woodblock print; oban. Sazai Hall at the Temple of the Five Hundred Arhats (Gohyakurakanji Sazaido), from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)", c. 1830/33 Katsushika Hokusai 5. The Great Wave may have appeared even more formidable to its original Japanese audience. Because Japanese text is read from right to left, the earliest viewers of The Great Wave would have likely read the print that way too, first encountering the boaters and then meeting the great claw of water about to swallow them. So instead of riding along with the gargantuan wave as you might in a left-to-right reading, they would face right into the massive wall of ocean. Reading The Great Wave in Reverse Hokusai Great Wave The original orientation of the print The Great Wave Reversed Do you get a different sense of the image when it's reversed? 6. Many of the prints in the series, in particular The Great Wave, are distinctive for their liberal use of blue. Both traditional indigo and the newly affordable Berlin blue--popularly known as "Prussian blue"--imported from Europe were used to create the many subtle shades of sea and sky. This captivating color, which would have been novel to many of the print's original Japanese viewers, might be part of its appeal. 2048px Pigment Berliner Blau A sample of Prussian blue, invented in Europe in 1706 Source: Wikimedia Commons, Saalebaer 7. Hokusai began the series when he was 70 years old. In his late 60s, just before the publisher Nishimuraya Yohachi commissioned Hokusai to produce a new series--what would become Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji--Hokusai had suffered a series of tragedies. He had a stroke, his wife died, and all the while, he was dealing with a grandson who was running up gambling debts that threatened the whole family's financial situation. Portrait Of Hokusai By Keisai Eisen Portrait of Katsushika Hokusai, year unknown Keisai Eisen Tani Zhai Ying Quan Source: Wikimedia Commons "No money, no clothing, barely enough to eat," he wrote. "If I can't make some arrangement by the middle of next month, I won't make it through the spring." Obviously, an arrangement was made, and Hokusai, clearly boosted by the success of his Mount Fuji series, went on to say, "All I have done before the age of 70 is not worth bothering with," implying that his best work was yet to come. 8. Hokusai was a member of a religion centered on Mount Fuji that flourished during the Edo period (1615-1868). Mount Fuji had been viewed as a sacred site since ancient times, but the long-revered peak became more of a presence in many Japanese people's lives when the capital of the country moved to Edo (present-day Tokyo). The unwalled city left residents with a clear, unobstructed view of the spiritual mountain. Devotees made pilgrimages up the mountain, and numerous smaller replicas, some as tall as 50 feet, were made for those who could not undertake the arduous journey up the actual peak. Hokusai Seal Later in his life, Hokusai incorporated a stylized design of Mount Fuji into his signature, or artist's seal, as seen at left. 9. Hokusai was likely inspired to take on the subject of Mount Fuji by earlier depictions of the mountain. One such large-scale painting of Mount Fuji--one of the earliest known to exist--is part of a pair of screens titled Mount Fuji and the Miho Pine Forest, made by renowned Japanese painter Soga Shohaku around 1761-62. Shohaku was a mysterious figure, revered for his unusual subjects and eccentric painting style. In his screens, which just recently came into the museum's collection and debuted in the galleries, Shohaku used almost entirely black ink to evocatively depict the landscape's rocks, mountains, and trees--as well as the ephemeral, intangible wind, rain, and clouds. A work made of pair of six panel screens; ink and light colors on paper. Mount Fuji and the Miho Pine Forest, c. 1761-1762 Soga Shohaku The left screen shows the famous towering peak. A work made of pair of six panel screens; ink and light colors on paper. Mount Fuji and the Miho Pine Forest, c. 1761-1762 Soga Shohaku The right screen depicts a rising dragon encased in clouds. Katz adds, "Mount Fuji is shown completely covered in snow in winter, and Shohaku painted it in the negative. The white of the mountain is the color of the bare paper, and the outlines of the peak are done with ink wash. This is one of the earliest and largest painted images of Mount Fuji in premodern times and a direct antecedent of Hokusai's images of the mountain." 10. The Great Wave has in turn inspired many other artists. Truly there are too many to count, so here's just a few: French composer Claude Debussy owned a copy of the print, and his 1905 composition The Sea (La Mer) was inspired by it. His first edition of the score used a detail of the print (no Fuji or boats) in muted colors as its cover. Debussy La Mer The Great Wave Of Kanaga From Hokusai The cover of Debussy's first edition of La Mer, 1905 Source: Wikimedia Commons Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke's 1908 poem The Mountain is thought to have been inspired by the print. Sculptor Camille Claudel replaced the boats in Hokusai's image with three women holding hands in her onyx work The Wave or the Bathers. It has been suggested that Vincent van Gogh was influenced by The Great Wave when creating his swirling and blue-heavy masterpiece The Starry Night. I did not know that one could be so terrifying with blue and green...these waves are claws, the boat is caught in them, you can feel it. --Vincent van Gogh Letter to his brother Theo, September 8, 1888 2048px Van Gogh Starry Night 2 The Starry Night, 1889 Vincent van Gogh The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest (by exchange). Conservation was made possible by the Bank of America Art Conservation Project Modern and contemporary artists who were influenced by the work include Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Lois Mailou Jones, and Yoshitomo Nara--and more! 11. Perhaps the most recent inspiration can be found in Gabrielle Zevin's book Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. Zevin's 2022 novel--this year's pick for Chicago Public Library's One Book, One Chicago--follows two once-estranged friends and gamers who reconnect and collaborate on what becomes a wildly popular video game. That game, Ichigo: A Child Lost at Sea, is inspired by The Great Wave, with the objective being to help the lost child find their way back, through various levels, to their parents. The cover of the novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow featuring a 3-d font over a pixelated detail of "The Great Wave" Cover of Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (2022) Cover design by John Gall. Published by Knopf The Great Wave, or rather a pixelated version of the image (once again minus Mount Fuji and the boats), also serves as the novel's cover. Zevin said, "When I was writing the novel, I once dreamed the cover, and it looked very close to this. So, I think John Gall, the cover designer, must have crawled into my dreams." 12. And of course, as with any image that has been burned into the global cultural psyche, The Great Wave has inspired hundreds of tributes and parodies. Picture Cookie Monster as the wave, the foam turning into bunnies, the water composed of dozens of pairs of Levi's, or the wave carrying surfing cats, sleeping cats, frolicking cats, bored cats ... so many cats. Or, just google it. Now that you're armed with all these fun factoids, be sure to catch the once-in-five-years appearance of The Great Wave in the Art Institute galleries. The print will be on view in the Ando Gallery (107) September 5, 2024, through January 6, 2025. Explore further with this self-guided tour, Hokusai's Waves of Influence, and discover more artworks that inspired and were inspired by the famous artist. Topics * Collection * Arts of Asia * Prints and Drawings * Japanese Prints Share * * Further Reading * 202202 082824 001 From the Archives Ray Johnson and the Last Dance of the Taoist Collages * Hokusai Great Wave Collection Spotlight 10+ Things to Know about The Great Wave * G51154 Int Exploring the Collection Love Story in a Porcelain Box * J21283 Int Press 300ppi 3000px Srgb Jpeg From the Conservation Studio Preserving the Transcendental within Charles Burchfield's Frame Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates. Email address [ ] Subscribe See all newsletters 1. [*] News and Exhibitions [ ] Career Opportunities [ ] Families 1. 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