The document summarizes Katsushika Hokusai's famous woodcut print "The Great Wave off Kanagawa". It describes how the print depicts three small boats facing a huge wave with Mount Fuji faintly visible in the background. While Western audiences saw the print as quintessential Japanese imagery, traditional Japanese viewers found elements like fishermen and perspective unacceptable. The print was first published between 1831-33, with dimensions of 26 cm x 38 cm using ink on wood. It depicts nature's violence balanced with the fishermen's discipline as they battle for survival.

1. The Great Wave off
Kanagawa
Teacher: Gkogkou Eirini
Student: Karypidou Anastasia
Class: A’4

2. "The Big Wave off the Kanagawa" by Katsushika Hokusai is
perhaps the most famous work of Japanese art in the West and has
also influenced world art. Japan's greatest artist, perhaps the only
one with so much success in the Western world, was born in 1770
and died 89 years later, having gone through countless artistic
styles, created just as many works and changed his name more
than 30 times. Different identities were common for his time and
country, but no artist has tried it so many times.
Katsushika Hokusai

3. The Big Wave is considered to be the most recognizable work in Japanese art,
thus influencing world art. It depicts three boats in a storm facing a huge wave,
while in the background the fuji mountain is faintly visible. In the bid wave, the
sea surrounds the viewer’s eye and the huge wave gives the feeling that it goes
up and not that it goes down, to meet the mountain in the background. To
Westerners, this woodcut seems to be the quintessence of the Japanese image,
but to the traditional Japanese of the Hokusai era, depicting fishermen,
perspective, or subtle shadow in the sky was unacceptable. The painting is a
print from wooden matrices and was first published between 1831-33. The
dimensions of the painting are 26 cm x 38 cm and the expedient is ink.
The Big Wave

4. «The big wave of Katsushika Hokusai»

5. Details of the project
The turbulent wave seems to rise above the viewer, while the small, steady pyramid of Mount
Fuji is in the distance. In traditional depictions of famous landscapes, Mount Fuji has always been
the center of the composition. Hokusai reversed this tradition by depicting the famous mountain
as a small hill in the background and in the middle of a troubled seascape. Hokusai liked to depict
water in motion. The three boats carrying fish to the islands seem to be sinking between the big
waves. The tiny fishermen are squeezed into the boats as they slide down and through the wave,
trying to lead them to the other side. The violence of nature in this work balances with the calm
self-confidence, discipline and competitiveness of experienced fishermen. Fishermen, at first
glance, are presented as a secondary element of the composition, but we must not overlook the
majestic battle of man for his survival. On the left, at the top of the work, there is a text in
Japanese script. These texts, which were characteristic of Japanese engravings, were usually
poems, and these poems were illustrated by the image

6. END OF PRESENTATION