DATA

Artist:

Katsushika Hokusai

Historical era:

Edo (19th century)

Material:

printed on silk

Medium:

hanging scroll

Theme:

High Resolution Facsimile of Japanese Art Abroad

Size:

H126.0 × W46.7 cm

Recipient:

Sumida Ward

depository:

The Sumida Hokusai MuseumMAP

[Original]

Current owner:

The Freer Gallery of Art of the Smithsonian Institution

Material:

ink, color on silk

DESCRIPTION

This work features an impressive contrast between dynamism and quietude, in the series of wild waves swelling violently and pushing toward a cliff on the one hand, and the peaceful hamlet with a long succession of thatch-roofed huts far beyond the waves on the other. The hook-like wave peaks evokes The Great Wave off Kanagawa from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, which is the representative of Hokusai’s woodblock prints and one of Japan's most world-famous fine art works. From the way the artist depicts the foreground and background, we can observe Hokusai's outstanding technique that fuses the Japanese tradition of fine arts with the Western art of perspective. We know from his signature and seal that he painted this work at 88, two years before he died. Charles Lang Freer purchased this work in 1905 from the Japanese fine art dealer Kobayashi Bunshichi.