Great Wave of Kanagawa

Great Wave of Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai is a coloured woodcut print which this skilled Japanese artist produced around 1829-1832. Greatwavekanagawa.com covers this beautiful art work in full and discusses the life and career of Hokusai as well. This is perhaps the most well known example of Japanese ukiyo-e art and was the very first part of Hokusai's artistically acclaimed series of prints, entitled Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. Those with a wide ranging taste in Japanese art can also find Japanese prints here.

Within the Great Wave print is the memorable Japanese boat which struggles against the huge waves which approach the Japanese area of Kanagawa, giving this piece it's title. In the background is the seemingly tiny Mount Fuji, with Hokusai using the principles of perspective to get across the danger and size of these waves. The beauty of this piece is in the natural force depicted by the artist as well as the charming detail which is put into each object within it, using Hokusai's style that is quite similar to cartoons, with clear blocks of colour to depict the key areas of each shape.

The fragile boat that lays in the enormous waves of this painting indicates how man can be at the mercy of nature but will still always strive to work with it, bravely in some cases. Hokusai's paintings proved very popular in Paris with in the mid-19th century where the most creative minds were gathered in an exciting posse of artistic influences, all bouncing off each other. The likes of Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec were extremely interested in the styles and techniques coming from exotic cultures which they had little knowledge of.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa is commonly found as a reproduced print all over the world in the modern day with it's reputation, plus that of it's artist, spreading far and wide in the centuries since his death. Alongside the great number of consumers who buy copies of it there are also impressive reproductions of it in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the British Museum in London, and in Claude Monet's house in Giverny, France plus many other key art institutions. Private buyers of reproductions of Hokusai's original paintings tend to choose what ever best fits their homes rather than what is necessarily the most accurate and flattering match of the original, with normal choices including posters, framed art prints, huge wall murals and also stretched canvases. Typically, giclee prints offer the most accurate match to Hokusai's colour selections in his 1829 ukiyo-e wooden block print.

Note: Great Wave of Kanagawa by Hokusai is sometimes called "Great Wave off Kanagawa", "Cresting Wave Off the Coast of Kanagawa" and "Great Wave at Kanagawa", but all refer to the same Hokusai print as seen throughout this website.

Great Wave off Kaganawa Desktop Wallpaper

You can download a huge digital image of Hokusai's Great Wave off Kaganawa right here and save it to your computer for use as a stylish desktop wallpaper. Simply right click on this Great Wave off Kaganawa Desktop Wallpaper link and select 'save as' to download it to your computer, where you can set it as your computer's background. Please note, it is a large high resolution download at 37MB.

Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

Hokusai's Great Wave off Kaganawa was an exceptional work and actually just the first in a whole series of prints produced by this Japanese artist that became known as his Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. For you interest, we include the full list below.

1. The Great Wave off Kanagawa
2. South Wind, Clear Sky (also known as Red Fuji)
3. Rainstorm Beneath the Summit
4. Under Mannen Bridge at Fukagawa
5. Sundai, Edo
6. The Circular Pine Trees of Aoyama
7. Senju, Musashi Province
8. Inume Pass, Kōshū
9. Fuji View Field in Owari Province
10. Ejiri in the Suruga Province
11. A sketch of the Mitsui shop in Suruga in Edo
12. Sunset across the Ryōgoku bridge from the bank of the Sumida River at Onmayagashi
13. Sazai hall - Temple of Five Hundred Rakan
14. Tea house at Koishikawa. The morning after a snowfall
15. Below Meguro
16. Watermill at Onden
17. Enoshima in Sagami Province
18. Shore of Tago Bay, Ejiri at Tōkaidō
19. Yoshida at Tōkaidō
20. The Kazusa Province sea route
21. Nihonbashi bridge in Edo
22. Barrier Town on the Sumida River
23. Bay of Noboto
24. The lake of Hakone in Sagami Province
25. Mount Fuji reflects in Lake Kawaguchi, seen from the Misaka Pass in Kai Province
26. Hodogaya on the Tōkaidō
27. Tama River in Musashi Province
28. Asakusa Hongan-ji temple in the Eastern capital [Edo]
29. Tsukuda Island in Musashi Province
30. Shichiri beach in Sagami Province
31. Umegawa in Sagami Province
32. Kajikazawa in Kai Province
33. Mishima Pass in Kai Province
34. Mount Fuji from the mountains of Tōtōmi
35. Lake Suwa in Shinano Province
36. Ushibori in Hitachi Province

Hokusai's Additional 10 Prints

The incredible success of the original Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji encouraged the artist to create a further ten art work pieces to add on top which remain well known today too, although most attention is given to only the original 36 of the series. You can see below a list of these additional 10 which came about from public pressure to see more from this exceptional ukiyo-e woodblock print series.

1. Goten-yama-hill, Shinagawa on the Tōkaidō
2. Honjo Tatekawa, the timberyard at Honjo
3. Pleasure District at Senju
4. Nakahara in Sagami Province
5. Ōno Shinden in the Suruga Province
6. Climbing on Fuji
7. The Tea plantation of Katakura in Suruga Province
8. The Fuji from Kanaya on the Tōkaidō
9. Dawn at Isawa in Kai Province
10. The back of Fuji from the Minobu river

Hokusai Prints Gallery

The previous list underlines the length of impressive prints that can be found in the career of Hokusai and we include some of the other great works that he produced below in a small gallery with links to where you can buy each as a giclee print reproduction of your own.

Disclaimer: Greatwavekanagawa.com is a fan website dedicated to the paintings and art prints produced by famous Japanese painter Hokusai, and is in no way an official website for painter Hokusai, nor does it claim to be. The Estate of Hokusai and their presence hold all necessary copyrights and licences for all of his paintings and other works. All prints, paintings and photos included in Greatwavekanagawa.com are provided as an affiliate to Art.com who hold necessary permissions.