wave to consider

This image is of the most famous of all Japanese woodblock prints.. It is by Katsushika HOKUSAI and was produced in 1831 and a copy today is bought and sold for many millions of yen. It is one of a series of views of Mt Fuji from different locations around the mountain.

The series "36 views of Mt Fuji" portray Mount Fuji differently in respect both of form and place. Whether seen from Shichirigahama, Tsukudajima or elsewhere, no two views are the same. Fuji is not only depicted from different viewpoints, but also at different times of the day and year. This picture, showing the mountain as seen from the open sea off mainland Kanagawa, is the third of the three masterpieces in the series. As with his pictures "Small Punts" and "Woodcutters on the Open Sea off Kanagawa", where small boats are similarly seen being tossed about by giant waves, this picture too was produced in yoko-oban format. The curvature of the waves as they break over the sailors conveys a vivid impression of the power of nature against which the power of man has little defence. In the midst of the waves Mount Fuji can be seen, small and distant, but yet majestically asserting its presence. Whether Hokusai ever actually saw Fuji from the sea, however, is very much open to question.