The Great Wave is one out of a series of 36 woodcuts made by Katsushika Hokusai. The breathtaking composition of this print is fantastic because it truly expresses Hokusai‘s feelings when he was making the series of woodcuts. I think he was possibly of angry whilst making this piece because you can just see the boats dreadfully caught in the towering waves above them.

The composition of this piece of work is amazing because the cutting work looks almost seamless and gives you the feel that it is really just perfectly swivelled lines not a woodcut. Another fantastic element of this work is the colour, if you look up at the almost beige sky it perfectly mixes with the white giving the effect of fog or condensation from the probably hot water. Another good aspect of the colour is that the waves are made out of different blues; in the centre of the waves there is a kind of mid-light blue that helps give the form of the object. It is also nice that Hokusai has added the small splashes of water that are sometimes very light blue or sometimes completely white. If you look down at the boats than you can barely see small figures bending down on their knees almost praying to god to stop the waves that are towering over them like skyscrapers form falling on them.

I find this work very dramatic and it feels just like a cliff-hanger in a movie: Who are the sailors? What happens to the sailors? What are their boats carrying? Every time I look at this brilliant piece of work those questions never fail to come to my head and annoy me for weeks and weeks onwards…