'The Great Wave' Hokusai Katsushika Square Scarf

The energetic and imposing picture The Great Wave (Kanagawa Oki Nami Ura) is the best-known work by Japanese artist Hokusai Katsushika (1760-1849), one of the greatest Japanese woodblock printmakers, painters and book illustrators. The Great Wave was created around 1831 as part of a series of woodblock prints called Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku Sanju-roku Kei). Hokusai (2004), a book written by the Italian professor of East Asian Art, Gian Carlo Calza, offers a general introduction to Hokusai’s works, looking at a chronologically arranged overview of his life and career. The collection of monographs by distinguished Western and Japanese scholars display’s wide research and keen discernment of present studies on Hokusai, while the abundant illustrations, amounting to over 700 in total, allow the readers to explore the fascinating world of Hokusai.

The most eye-catching feature of the painting is the extended wave as it is about to break with the crash of its claw-like crest. The beautiful dark blue pigment used by Hokusai, called Prussian Blue, was a new material at the time, imported from England through China. The wave is about to strike the boats as if it were an enormous monster, one which seems to symbolise the irresistible force of nature and the weakness of human beings.