神奈川沖浪裏

The great wave by Katsushika Hokusai[edit]

The Great Wave off Kanagawa, 神奈川沖浪裏, Kanagawa Oki Nami Ura, lit. "Under a Wave off Kanagawa", also known as The Great Wave or simply The Wave, is a woodblock print by the Japanese artist Hokusai. An example of ukiyo-e art, it was published sometime between 1829 and 1833 (during the Edo Period) as the first in Hokusai's series 36 Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei, 富嶽三十六景), and is his most famous work. This particular woodblock is one of the most recognized works of Japanese art in the world. It depicts an enormous wave threatening boats near the Japanese prefecture of Kanagawa. While sometimes assumed to be a tsunami, the wave is, as the picture's title notes, more likely to be a large okinami – literally "wave of the open sea." As in all the prints in the series, it depicts the area around Mount Fuji under particular conditions, and the mountain itself appears in the background.

Copies of the print are in many Western collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the British Museum in London, The Art Institute of Chicago, in Claude Monet's house in Giverny, France and in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany.

The Great Wave of Kangawa

The Great Wave[edit]

"Original" type, printed around 1829-1833[edit]

Art Institute of Chicago 1952. (3.433 × 2.074 px)
British Museum, London, 1906,1220,0.533 (3.686 × 2.571 px), + 1 version
Centre Céramique, Maastricht 1.906 × 1.272 Pixel
Honolulu Museum of Art 727 × 490 Pixel
Los Angeles County Museum of Art 2.100 × 1.408 Pixel
Metropolitan Museum of Art, JP1847, 3.859 × 2.594
Musée Guimet, Paris 2.485 × 1.746 Pixel
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg 1.125 × 758 Pixel
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 5.329 × 3.649 Pixel
National Gallery of Victoria 1.244 × 845 Pixel
Rijksmuseum, 2.568 × 1.753 Pixel
Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, (5.389 × 3.571 px)

Facsimile/Reproduction[edit]

"Original" type. Facsimile of a woodblock made ca. 1930 exactly the same way as they were made by artisans ca. 1830. 4.335 × 2.990 px
Library of Congress, 8.354 × 5.771 px
Library of Congress
Library of Congress
Reproduction from a miniature edition by Takamizawa, Japan
Signature and title

Details[edit]

Similar works[edit]

Kaijo no fuji, second volume des cents vues du mont Fuji, 1834, Hokusai. It is a mirrored version of the famous Big wave of Kanagawa from the 36 views of the Fuji. There are no boats and the wave crests are birds.
Oshiokuri Hato Tsusen no Zu (Fast Cargo Boat Battling The Waves), 1905, Hokusai
View of Honmoku
Kanagawa-oki Honmoku no zu (View of Honmoku off Kanagawa), 1903, Hokusai
Mille Images de l’océan (Chie no umi), Chōshi dans la province de Shimosa (Sōshū Chōshi), 1832-1834, Hokusai.
Wall painting in Massachusetts, USA
Cover of La Mer, Claude Debussy, 1905
Sculpture Die Woge on the Augustus Bridge in Dresden as a memorial for the 2002 Elbe flood