Art Archive • Hokusai

Ukiyo-e

Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji · 01 / 31

Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave)

神奈川沖浪裏（冨嶽三十六景）

  • From Between the Waves
  • Water
  • Mountain
A towering wave about to engulf boats, with small but immovable Fuji visible beyond the crest — Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave). The Metropolitan Museum of Art (public domain).
Katsushika Hokusai. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (public domain).

From Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, this print needs little introduction: foam, boats, and a Fuji that refuses to move. Hokusai treats viewpoint itself as drama.

Read this as a "from between the waves" viewpoint — you share the boat’s peril, not the shore’s safety.

Track how water and mountain forms divide the sheet into motion above and calm below.

Compare the claw-like wave crest with the quiet triangular Fuji — contrast is the composition’s engine.

Extended Japanese viewing notes: 神奈川沖浪裏（冨嶽三十六景）.

← Back to gallery The Great Wave — single download on SUZURI Hokusai & Hiroshige complete set (51 works) on SUZURI Hokusai best-set on SUZURI Full viewing guide (Japanese) Hokusai Gallery (Guide)