The Great Wave off Kanagawa

This work by Katsushika Hokusai is widely known as The Great Wave off Kanagawa. It is a colour woodblock print, made around 1830 to 1832, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. Begin with the mountain. Can you find it without a hint? A small triangle appears in the distance, beneath the curve of the wave. The series invites us to look at Mount Fuji, yet the enormous water almost takes over our attention. Now find the boats and the people. They give us a sense of scale. Without them, the wave might seem like an intricate pattern. Follow its outer edge: it rises in a broad arc, then divides into many thin branches of foam. Notice the empty space around it, too. The pale background makes the silhouette especially clear. How does the image feel when you alternate between the still mountain and the crest of the wave? This is our own exercise in observation, not the only interpretation of the work. This impression belongs to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and is not part of our current Minsk exhibition listings.