The Great Wave off Kanagawa
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About The Great Wave off Kanagawa
One of Japan’s most famous mountains is hiding in this picture.
The wave makes sure you miss it at first. It rises over the boats, curls across the sky, and breaks into white tips that look almost like claws. That monster is only something our eyes imagine—but the people in the long boats are real parts of the scene, and they are very small beneath the water.
Now look through the opening under the wave. The tiny, still triangle in the distance is Mount Fuji. Hokusai turned a great mountain into the quietest shape in the picture, while a passing wave became enormous.
This is not a one-of-a-kind oil painting. It is a woodblock print from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. Hokusai designed the image, while skilled carvers and printers helped cut and press its lines and blues onto paper. A whole team made this frozen second of motion.
Artwork details
- Artist
- Katsushika Hokusai
- Date
- ca. 1830–32
- Medium
- Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Dimensions
- 25.7 × 37.9 cm
- Collection
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Accession number
- JP1847
