Under the Wave off Kanagawa
Katsushika Hokusai · from Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji · c. 1831
Polychrome woodblock print (nishiki-e) from Hokusai's Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. Three oshiokuri-bune boats struggle against a cresting wave while Mount Fuji appears small at the horizon. This layer references the impression held at The Met (accession JP1847).
Hokusai's series was produced by the publisher Nishimuraya Yohachi between c. 1830 and 1832. The composition uses Prussian blue (bero-ai), a pigment recently imported from the West, accounting for the intense ultramarine that distinguishes the print from earlier ukiyo-e palettes. Impressions are held in many public collections — notably the Met, MFA Boston, British Museum, and Tokyo National Museum.
Descent of Under the Wave off Kanagawa
Annotations from the network
Footnote-style observations from other contributors, folded into the layer's margins. Visible, but quiet.
- 01
Note how the Prussian blue sits in the wave's trough versus its crest — later Hokusai impressions stabilize this gradient, but early pulls like this one still feel like the pigment is being tested against the page.
- 02
The cover of Debussy's 1905 Durand edition of La Mer reproduces this print at the composer's request. A cross-medium lineage worth branching into its own layer.
- 03
Cross-impression XRF of this series (see descendant analysis) supports distinct pulls over the run — not a single uniform batch, but a recarved block drifting as it wore.