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You've seen this image before- a giant wave, its distinctive curly claws arched and ready to pounce. It's invoked when natural disaster strikes but it's also used as prints on T-shirts and sweatshirts, like posters and wall tapestries that people hang in their rooms. It's even inspired a significant number of tattoos. It's an omnipresent image. Good grief, it's even an emoji. What is it about this image that continues to enthrall us? Let’s better know The Great Wave.
A Glimpse Into the History
In the late Edo period, somewhere between 1829-1833, a painter in his seventies, Katsushika Hokusai, published a series of woodblock print paintings called “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji” and the most famous one out of those 36 paintings was the one called 'Kanagawa-Oki Nami Ura' (Under the Wave off Kanagawa) with 'Fine Wind, Clear Morning' and 'Thunderstorm Beneath The Summit'.
‘The Great Wave Off Kanagawa’ is the product of Japan's seclusion from the rest of the world. After centuries of civil conflicts, the feudal overlords of Japan, or the Tokugawa Shogun, acquired control of Japan in the Edo period, which is marked by economic prosperity, a steady population, eternal peace, and public enjoyment of arts and culture.
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The Shogun saw Christianity and other foreign influences as a threat to the country's newly gained stability and so, Japan closed its borders and sealed itself off from the rest of the world in 1639. Foreigners were exiled from Japan, western culture was prohibited, and entering or leaving the country was punishable by death. That would be the case for the next 200 years.
Under these conditions, a quintessentially Japanese art—art for the people—emerged, which was enjoyed on a massive scale. It was a period when the entire world was becoming industrialized, and the Japanese were worried about invasions from the outside.
At first glance, The Great Wave appears to be a tranquil and immortal image of Japan. However, if you look closely, you'll notice that this majestic wave is ready to envelop three boats of anxious fishermen as Mount Fuji and Japan's coastlines fade into the background. This is a picture of Japan, which is afraid that the sea, which has safeguarded its tranquil isolation for so long, would betray it.
Ukiyo-e: The Japanese Heritage
Source: Wikimedia Commons
As the economy grew, merchants, who had previously been considered the lowest social class, ascended up the ranks and were able to procure luxuries such as education, domestic travel, books, and the arts. The merchants' quest for sensuous delights was dubbed "ukiyo," which means "floating world." Edo's (modern-day Tokyo) red-light district gave birth to culture.
Along with brothels, kabuki theatres, puppet shows, poets, and writers could all be found here. The majority of the commercial prints were of prominent courtesans and kabuki actors. It was sex and celebrity that sold back then, as it is now. Thousands of woodblock prints called "ukiyo-e," or "pictures of the floating world," were sold.
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It was a fad similar to modern-day trading cards, with a steady desire for new images, celebrities, and prints to collect. Even though they were produced by hand, mass production made them extremely profitable for publishers. At least 8000 copies of The Great Wave were most likely printed.
For each color used, the woodblock print technique necessitates carving wooden blocks one by one. It is made by cutting an image into a woodblock with sharp tools, then inking the raised areas and pressing the block against a piece of paper.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
One of the reasons for The Great Wave's success in Japan was that it was printed in a new and exotic color that had never been seen in Japan before. It had a unique, vivid color, was synthetic, and was clearly imported from Europe, as it is now known as the Prussian or Berlin blue.
Traditional painting, on the other hand, was still considered noble and out of reach for most merchants, but these prints could be purchased for the price of a bowl of noodles and were still seen as low in social status. Notwithstanding the highly restricted environment of the Edo period, the arts thrived, and ukiyo-e ensured that art was no longer limited to the wealthy.
The Great Wave and the Significance of Mount Fuji
Hokusai put everything he’d learned about style, color, light, and technique over six decades into his “36 views of Mount Fuji” and one of those views brought his work international acclaim. All of the images in this series incorporate a view of Mount Fuji. However, as seen in The Great Wave, it doesn’t always take the centre stage.
Instead, in The Great Wave, the gigantic surging wave, taking up 2/3rd of the image, appears to be the main star whereas Mount Fuji, the actual main star, looks just like any other mountain in the background, shrunk through the use of perspective. It's not only the three fishing boats that are being enveloped by the wave but also the mountain appears as if it's about to be devoured by it too.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The shrinking down of the mountain also evokes the feeling that the shore is far away and whether the fishermen will be able to reach it in time or not.
As to why Hokusai decided on Mount Fuji as his muse, Mount Fuji isn’t just any mountain for Japanese people. The fascination towards Mount Fuji is actually profoundly anchored in ancient philosophy and folklore about its sanctity, which was firmly established as a cult in Japan at the time of the making of The Great Wave and still continues to be.
Mount Fuji was "the source of the secret of immortality" for Hokusai. According to a folk tale he uses, this volcano was granted the ultimate secret of eternal life, and it proceeded to produce smoke loaded with answers until the end of time, thereby remaining alive forever. This story inspired his own perspective on immortality and life, as he claims,
"...only when I reach one hundred years, I will have achieved a divine state in my art, and at one hundred and ten, every dot and stroke will be as though alive."
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Mount Fuji, Japan's highest peak, has long been revered as a sacred mountain. Hokusai is said to have had a personal obsession with the mountain, which prompted him to create this series. He was, however, responding to a surge in domestic travel and the resulting market for Mount Fuji's images. Japanese woodblock prints were often bought as souvenirs.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Ordinary citizens who were adherents of the "Fuji cult" who conducted pilgrimages to climb the mountain, as well as tourists visiting the new capital city, were the initial consumers for Hokusai's prints.
Written By - Sanjana Chaudhary
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