The Great Wave, a masterwork by Katsushika Hokusai from 1831, has a “peculiar power to befuddle” in addition to being a powerful worldwide emblem. What are the hints that assist interpret this amazing image, as it is on display in a new exhibition in London?
The claws snaking from the crest of Katsushika Hokusai’s tense 1831 woodblock painting Under the Wave off Kanagawa—better known today as just The Great Wave—captivate the viewer’s attention. When Vincent Van Gogh and his brother Theo talked about the print trade letters in the 1880s, it was precisely these ominous talons that caught their attention.
Quick Facts About Hokusai's Great Wave
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Artwork | The Great Wave off Kanagawa |
| Artist | Katsushika Hokusai |
| Creation Date | Around 1831 |
| Art Style | Japanese Ukiyo e Woodblock Print |
| Main Subject | Three Boats, Powerful Waves and Mount Fuji |
| Related Collection | Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji |
| Exhibition Venue | Dulwich Picture Gallery, London |
| Key Themes | Nature, Humanity, Spirituality and Survival |
The Hidden Meaning of The Great Wave
The world has been feeling more than just seeing Hokusai’s remarkable, comparatively modest, and simple image dominated by Prussian Blue for almost 200 years. It is among the most instantly identifiable works of art in cultural history, along with Van Gogh’s The Starry Nite, Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Leonardo’s Mona Lisa.
The Van Gogh brothers’ united response to the picture is noteworthy because of how imprecisely they remember what The Great Wave actually shows.
Is The Great Wave an emblem of heavenly overview or a study that compares the transience of existence with the persistence of the soul?
The Great Wave: Nature, Humanity and Survival
The three boats, the roaring waves, the lowering sky, and a small snow-capped Mount Fuji in the background make up the amazingly compact composition of The Great Wave. However, it is still nearly impossible to comprehend what is depicted in the well-known print.
Is this a depiction of humanity’s unwavering resilience in the face of impending catastrophe, or is it a representation of the sublime power of nature and the triviality of human endeavors? Is The Great Wave a study that compares the persistence of the spirit (represented by the mountain) with the transience of existence (represented by the wave)?
Hokusai's Journey Through Mount Fuji
These days, The Great Wave appears in everything from Japanese 1,000 yen banknotes to emojis, memes, and Lego sets. The artist produced a companion series of prints, possibly foreseeing its extraordinary resonance. This series aids in deciphering the original Great Wave’s implications and explains its enduring influence.
The Dulwich Picture Gallery in London is currently exhibiting 36 Views of Mount Fuji, the first time the full series—along with ten additional prints—has been presented in the United Kingdom.
Hokusai was going through a stunning identity reinvention by the time he started the series.
A fisherman's frailty
Examine the Kai Province print Kajikazawa, which depicts a person standing precariously on a rocky point in the image’s center, casting lines into the raging Fuji River.
Here, Hokusai, who began his series with the intention of honoring the eternal in the transient, focuses on the difficulties faced by a lone fisherman in trying to find something timeless and archetypal in his labor.
The figure is fixed in a delicate geometry of tangents that mimic the triangular shape of the powerful mountain behind him by the almost subconscious fishing lines that he tosses into the raging torrent while attached to cormorants.
Or consider the seemingly straightforward print Fujimigahara in Owari Province, whose sunny tranquility may initially appear to be the furthest thing from the turbulence of The Great Wave.
Mount Fuji, which has long been regarded as a symbol of immortality, is reduced to an almost undetectable sliver of shaved wood scooped by the cooper, who is busy constructing a massive round barrel in the print’s foreground. This is a masterclass in compositional staging.
Bottomless, the unfinished barrel turns into an enormous lens through which Mount Fuji is both framed and forgotten, glimpsed and overshadowed at the same time.
Everything is in flux
These fluctuating perspectives of Mount Fuji add up to a feeling that life is illusory. The Edo period’s ukiyo-e (or “floating world”) woodblock prints came to be associated with this theme.
Reflection in Lake at Misaka in Kai Province, which depicts a lone fisherman reclining in his boat surrounded by clear, smooth water and watched over by a bold and desolate Mount Fuji, may be the most captivating piece in the collection that highlights this aspect of The Great Wave.
Surrounded by verdant hills and leafy trees, the motionless picture exudes a dreamlike tranquility.
