Katsushika Hokusai: The Great Wave off Kanagawa (Under the Wave off Kanagawa)

The Great Wave off Kanagawa Created during Japan's Edo period, Hokusai's iconic woodblock print represents the pinnacle of ukiyo-e art—a genre celebrating everyday scenes and landscapes through bold compositions and striking colors. The dramatic composition, with its towering wave threatening tiny boats and distant Mount Fuji, exemplifies how Japanese artists revolutionized perspective and spatial relationships, profoundly influencing European modernists decades later. Part of the series "Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji," this print demonstrates Hokusai's masterful use of Prussian blue pigment and dynamic line work to capture both the raw power of nature and the resilience of those who navigate it.