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Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)

Katsushika Hokusai Japanese

The breathtaking composition of this woodblock print, said to have inspired Debussy’s La Mer (The Sea) and Rilke’s Der Berg (The Mountain), ensures its reputation as an icon of world art. Hokusai cleverly played with perspective to make Japan’s grandest mountain appear as a small triangular mound within the hollow of the cresting wave. The artist became famous for his landscapes created using a palette of indigo and imported Prussian blue.

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 899

Public Domain

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Object Details

「富嶽三十六景　神奈川沖浪裏」

Title: Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)

Artist: Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, Tokyo (Edo) 1760–1849 Tokyo (Edo))

Period: Edo period (1615–1868)

Date: ca. 1830–32

Culture: Japan

Medium: Woodblock print; ink and color on paper

Dimensions: 10 1/8 x 14 15/16 in. (25.7 x 37.9 cm)

Classification: Prints

Credit Line: H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929

Accession Number: JP1847

Audio

#8807. Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as the Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)

For Audio Guide tours and information, visit metmuseum.org/audioguide.
Signature: Zen Hokusai Iitsu hitsu

前北斎為一筆
Mrs. H. O. (Louisine W.) Havemeyer , New York (until d. 1929; bequeathed to MMA).
Houston. Institute for the Fine Arts, Rice University. "Art Nouveau," March 1, 1976–June 30, 1976.

Art Institute of Chicago. "Art Nouveau," August 1, 1976–October 31, 1976.

Sarasota Springs. Skidmore College. "A Survey of Japanese Prints: Moronobu to Nensho," February 14, 1980–March 2, 1980.

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Katsushika Hokusai," November 15, 1991–February 9, 1992.

Dallas Museum of Art. "Katsushika Hokusai," May 24, 1992–July 19, 1992.

Nagoya City Museum. "Ukiyo-e from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 14, 1995–May 28, 1995.

Milan. Palazzo Reale. "Hokusai: Il Vecchio Pazzo per la Pittura," October 1, 1999–January 9, 2000.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Sense of Place: Landscape in Japanese Art," May 8, 2002–September 8, 2002.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan I," March 1, 2003–September 21, 2003.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Poetry and Travel in Japanese Art," December 18, 2008–May 31, 2009.

Washington, DC. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "Hokusai: Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji," March 24, 2012–June 17, 2012.

Essays
Art of the Edo Period (1615-1868)
Art of the Pleasure Quarters and the Ukiyo-e Style
Woodblock Prints in the Ukiyo-e Style

Timelines
Japan, 1800-1900 A.D.

Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection
Prints and People: A Social History of Printed Pictures
Making The Met, 1870–2020
"Hokusai": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 43, no. 1 (Summer, 1985)

Asian Art (36,429)
Katsushika Hokusai (429)
Ink (32,780)
Paper (30,131)
Printing blocks (6,083)
Prints (148,921)
Relief prints (15,218)
Wood blocks (5,532)
Woodcuts (11,660)
Asia (71,473)
Japan (23,106)
A.D. 1800–1900 (113,930)

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