In this article we will tell you everything about the great wave of Kanagawa, one of the main works of Japanese art, making a painting as the main axis of the great wave and Mount Fuji, a mountain that is the symbol of the Japanese nation. Keep reading about the article and find out everything that happened on painter to be the great masterpiece!
The Great Wave off Kanagawa
The Great Wave off Kanagawa is a famous picture that is also known as The Great Wave or The Wave. It was painted between 1830 and 1833 by the ukiyo-e painter, Katsushika Hokusai, during the Edo period in Japanese history.
This work by the ukiyo-e painter, Katsushika Hokusai is the most famous and well-known that the painter has and is the first of a famous series known as Fugaku sanjūrokkei which contains Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji.
In the same way, the Great Wave is one of the best known images in the world since many copies of it were made from the mold that the painter used, which reached the hands of important collectors on the European continent. And in the year 1870 the picture of the great wave of Kanagawa became very popular in Europe.
It became so famous that collectors from various countries paid a fortune to have it among those collectors were the French that the great wave caused great attachment to the print.
Today many museums have copies of the print of the great wave of Kanagawa. Among which the following stand out: Guimet Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the National Library of France and the National Museum of Art of Catalonia, according to what is said, all prints reached museums from private collections in the XNUMXth century .
Characteristic of the Print
Being one of the most famous works of art in Japan, The Great Wave off Kanagawa has come to obsess great painters such as Van Gogh and many others as it is an image that represents yin and yang.
But it also represents the romantic and the sublime of the Japanese East. From what was known about the artist of the Great Wave of Kanagawa, he was a very humble person and was very sure of the greatness of his work since he signed the print in the upper left. Among the main characteristics of the print we have:
The mountain: It is the one seen at the bottom of the print and is known as Mount Fuji, since the summit of this mountain is always snowing, and it is the central figure of the Great Wave. The print also belongs to a series of thirty-six prints made by the painter of the views of Mount Fuji from different angles.
It should be noted that in Japan Mount Fuji is considered sacred and is the symbol of identity of the Japanese nation. It is also considered a symbol of beauty.
The ships: In the print of the great wave, the scene shows three boats known in Japan as oshioki-bune, these boats are used in Japan to transport fish from the peninsulas to the ports of Izu and Bōsō and then from there to the markets of the bay.
These three ships are on the Great Wave in a place called Kanagawa Prefecture, since Tokyo is to the north and Mount Fuji is to the northwest. Sagami Bay to the south. Tokyo Bay in the east of the country.
In the boats that are located in the picture of the great wave there are eight rowers who are clinging to their oars so as not to lose their lives and in the front of each boat there are two more passengers. So taking into account in the stamp of the great wave there are a total of twenty men. These boats usually had a length of 12 meters up to 15 meters.
The sea and its waves: In the print of the great wave, the sea is an important element since it is based on the shape of a great wave that extends throughout the painting and dominates the entire scene until it falls again.
But precisely at that moment the great wave makes a very perfect spiral whose center of the work passes through the center of the print. In this way, the Fuji mountain can be seen in the background of the painting. An art specialist known as Edmond de Goncourt described the great wave of the print as follows:
“The drawing of the wave is a kind of deified version of the sea made by a painter who experienced the religious terror of the overwhelming ocean completely surrounding his country; it impresses by the sudden fury of its jump through the sky, by the deep blue of the inner side of its curvature, by the splash of its crest that spreads a spray of small drops in the shape of animal claws”
In the same way, another art specialist made a tremendous comment on the print made by the Japanese ukiyo-e painter, Katsushika Hokusai, since he commented on the following:
«a seascape with the Fuji. The waves form a frame through which we see Mt. The gigantic wave is a big yang to the ying of empty space below it. The inevitable burst of water that we expect gives tension to the painting. In the background, a small peaking wave, forming a miniature Mount Fuji, is reflected hundreds of miles away by the huge original Mount Fuji, shrunken in perspective.
The wave is bigger than the mountain. The small fishermen cling to their thin boats, slide over a seamount trying to avoid the wave. The yang violence of nature is overcome by the yin of confidence of these experienced fishermen. Strangely, even though there is a storm, the sun is shining overhead.”
The signature: The print of the great wave has two inscriptions. The first inscription is related to the title of the series, which is written in the upper left part of the print. The second inscription is to the left of the print and is the author's signature which reads as follows: Hokusai aratame Iitsu hitsu.
Although the painter did not have a surname since he was from a very humble region, he signed it with his first nickname which was Katsushika, although the painter came to use more than thirty different names and never wanted a job without changing his name.
Conception of the Great Wave
At the time that the painter began to make the great wave of Kanagawa, he was in many difficulties, he was already sixty years old and had many economic problems. At that time he also had a serious health problem. According to the studies that have been done, it would be a heart attack.
That is why the work of the great wave took several years to complete and that is why the first designs that were made of the great wave of Kanagawa were made in a dense and uniform material.
In this way the stamp had a great verticality and a strong rigidity that instead of a great wave it looked like a mountain on which snow was falling. That is why changes were made and the big wave now looks more active, aggressive and very dynamic. Which gives a sense of threat.
The great wave is very marked by Japanese painting, where the observing public is seeing the stamp of birds' eyes. Although many people who have detailed the stamp have come to affirm that when they look at the stamp they feel that they are going to be crushed by the great wave.
In the first prints made by the Japanese painter, the horizon can be seen, but in the last ones, the perspective of the great wave changed so that the horizon is so low that the viewer focuses on the great wave.
In another situation that the painter changed as he modified the work little by little, it was that the ships were first on the crest of the great wave. But this interferes with the dynamics and curve of the great wave so he removed them and placed them lower to give more drama to the great wave off Kanagawa print.
The truth is that in the print the great wave is the one who demonstrates that it has control of the entire work. Although the image has a very simple design as it makes the observer believe. However, the stamp took a lot of work and a long process of redesigns. In addition to a methodical reflection by the painter.
All the changes that the painter was making were reflected in a work that he made to which title Simplified Drawing Quick Lessons, in the year 1812. In that document, the painter Hokusai explained in detail how an object is drawn by relating a square to a circle.
After spending some time, the painter returned to the print of the great wave, since he began to work on a work called Kaijo no Fuji, whose main reason was to make a second volume which would be a hundred views of Mount Fuji.
In that print that he made again, the same relationship of a square with a circle was found, in addition to the fact that in the last print on the great wave the painter did not place neither boats nor people and the fragments of the waves coincide with the flight of the birds. But the trip of the Wave this time made her contrary to how Japanese is read from left to right.
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