Facts about The Great Wave off Kanagawa
- 09
Collectors in Victorian England became obsessed with The Great Wave off Kanagawa during the 1870s japonisme craze, driving up prices and establishing the print's status as a masterpiece of world art.
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Hokusai's iconic print required coordination between a carver, a printer, and a block maker who each contributed specialized skills to transform the original design into the final woodblock masterpiece.
- 07
Ōta Dokan, a samurai warrior and patron of the arts, likely owned one of the few surviving original impressions of The Great Wave off Kanagawa during the Edo period.
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A single woodblock required approximately 15 separate layers of carving to produce The Great Wave off Kanagawa, one layer for each color in the final print.
- 05
Approximately 8,000 impressions of The Great Wave off Kanagawa were printed across multiple woodblocks throughout the nineteenth century, making it one of the most widely circulated Japanese prints of its era.
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Three copies of The Great Wave off Kanagawa are known to exist in their original state, making the woodblock print remarkably rare given its estimated production of approximately 100-200 impressions.
- 03
Mount Fuji appears diminished in the background of The Great Wave off Kanagawa, deliberately minimized to emphasize the power of the foreground wave and challenge traditional landscape hierarchy.
- 02
Prussian blue pigment, which dominates the composition of The Great Wave off Kanagawa, was an expensive imported synthetic color that symbolized Hokusai's artistic sophistication and wealth.
- 01
Katsushika Hokusai created The Great Wave off Kanagawa around 1830 as part of his Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji series.