The Great Wave

by David Beaulieu February 01, 2021

Which surf company rode The Great Wave to design its logo and more : check out these fun facts about the most famous work of Japanese art!

Which surf company rode The Great Wave to design its logo and more : check out these fun facts about the most famous work of Japanese art!

The Great Wave off Kanagawa is a woodblock print by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai. It was published sometime between 1829 and 1833.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa is a woodblock print by the

Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai. It was published sometime between

1829 and 1833.

Did you know?

Not always seen at first,

there are three boats being threatened by this enormous wave.

Sometimes assumed to be a tsunami, the wave is more likely to be a large rogue wave.

Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji , from which The Great Wave comes, was produced from c. 1830 when Hokusai was around seventy years old.

The mountain with a snow-capped peak is Mount Fuji, which in Japan is considered sacred and a symbol of national identity.

Over his career, Hokusai used more than 30 different names, always beginning a new cycle of works by changing it, and letting his students use the previous name.

It's a print series, not a painting. Because it is a woodblock print, there are lots of Great Waves to go around. Prints can be found in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the British Museum of London, the Art Institute of Chicago, LACMA of Los Angeles, and Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria.