The Great Wave off Kanagawa, better known as The Great Wave, is one of pop culture’s most iconic images. The famous woodblock print was created around 1831 as an addition to a series of woodblock prints, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku Sanju-roku Kei), made by the artist once known as Katsushika Hokusai.
Despite having made monumental advancements in Japanese art during and after his time, Hokusai had never been fully satisfied with his work, not even as he faced death. However, his life story is still a fascinating story that has ended up changing Japanese society.
Katsushika Hokusai’s life is best divided up into time periods associated by his various names, which just so happen to correspond to his various art style changes. During his lifetime, Hokusai, originally named Tokitarō, underwent at least 30 name changes during his lifetime, with his most famous name being that of Katsushika Hokusai, associated with his time of rising artistic fame in Japan in 1798.
Although this was not the time period in which he created his world-renowned The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Hokusai published two landscape collections, Famous Sights of the Eastern Capital and Eight Views of Edo, as well as developed a following of his own pupils, increased notoriety and a development of his own distinctive art style.
Within the next decade his fame grew not only through his art but also his knack for self-promotion. Stories of Hokusai speak of him “painting through performance” rather than through traditional and more conservative tactics. One retelling of a story places Hokusai at a Tokyo festival in 1804, in which Hokusai created a 600 foot portrait of the Buddhist priest Daruma through using a long brush with bucketfuls of ink.
Another story states that he was once invited to compete in a live-painting session held in the court of the Shogun Ienari. Rather than painting through traditional brush and ink, Hokusai’s technique could be described as more “abstract.” The Shogun himself watched as Hokusai’s act began with a single blue curve on a sheet of paper which was followed by him chasing a chicken, whose feet had been dipped in red paint, across the courtyard and back. He claimed his work was a landscape showing the Tatsuta River scattered with floating red maple leaves and won the competition.
It was after the age of “Hokusai” that he began creating the paintings renowned today that secured his later fame overseas (Japan was isolated from the outside world at the time, so overseas fame came only after Hokusai’s death). In 1820, “Hokusai” became “Iitsu” and reached the peak of his career. Hokusai’s love for Edo, Japan (now modern-day Tokyo), was featured through his various woodblock landscapes including his most famous works, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provinces and Unusual Views of Celebrated Bridges in Provinces. The Great Wave was also developed during this time period. The famous woodblock print was created around 1831 as an addition to a series of woodblock prints, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku Sanju-roku Kei), and features a large rogue wave with Mt. Fuji in the background.