# 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, 1760–1849)  
ca. 1830–32  
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper  
10 1/8 x 14 15/16 in. (25.7 x 37.9 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, JP1847. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/45434).

## About this work

The most famous image in Japanese art pits human fragility against the force of nature: boatmen bend to their oars beneath a wall of water whose fingers of foam reach down towards them, while Mount Fuji, the sacred mountain, sits calm and tiny in the distance. Hokusai designed it around 1830–32 for his series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. When Japanese prints reached Europe later in the century, the Great Wave captivated artists and composers alike: Van Gogh wrote admiringly of its claw-like waves, and Debussy chose it for the cover of the first edition of La Mer.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Katsushika Hokusai designed this in about 1830–32, aged about 60. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Colour woodblock print.** In Japan these were a team effort. The artist drew the design, a carver cut it into cherry-wood blocks, one block for each colour, and a printer brushed on the pigment and rubbed each sheet by hand. Full-colour prints of this kind were called nishiki-e, “brocade pictures”, from the 1760s on.

### [Katsushika Hokusai](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/katsushika-hokusai)

Japanese, 1760–1849

Hokusai trained in the studio of the actor-portraitist Katsukawa Shunshō and went on to work under more than thirty names across a career of some seventy years. Alongside book illustration, paintings and the sketch volumes known as Hokusai Manga, he made landscape a leading subject of ukiyo-e with Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, issued around 1830–33, in which the mountain appears from city, coast and countryside, often in the newly imported Prussian blue.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Prints
- Culture: Japan
- The artist was about 60
- Real size: about 10 × 15 in (26 × 38 cm). The 11 × 14 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 19th century
- Movement: [Ukiyo-e](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/ukiyo-e)
- Subjects: Waves, Boats
- Colour: indigo
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/918.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/918/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/under-the-wave-off-kanagawa-kanagawa-oki-nami-ura-also-known-met-45434).