Begin with a detail, not the whole work: a crest bends forward like a claw, pale foam breaks into small hooked shapes, and the sea seems to rise beyond the edge of the frame.
Follow the clues
This is not an oil painting. It is a Japanese woodblock print, made with ink and colour on paper during the Edo period.
Now look towards the distance. Mount Fuji is present, but the famous mountain is reduced to a small, almost weightless triangle beneath the wave.
Guess the artist
A. Utagawa Hiroshige
B. Katsushika Hokusai
C. Kitagawa Utamaro
Pause before revealing the answer.
The answer: Katsushika Hokusai
The answer is B — Katsushika Hokusai. The full work is Under the Wave off Kanagawa, also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. The Met dates this impression to about 1830–32 and identifies the medium as a polychrome woodblock print made with ink and colour on paper.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art marks the work Public Domain and supplies its Open Access image under CC0.
Why the image endures
Hokusai makes scale feel unstable. The wave dominates the foreground, three narrow boats press through the sea, and Mount Fuji remains small and calm in the distance. The mountain and the curling crest echo one another, but one appears permanent while the other could collapse in an instant.
The Met’s research describes the print’s use of indigo and imported Prussian blue, including layered printing that deepened the colour without sacrificing intensity. The print belongs to a series that became so popular that ten more views were added to the original thirty-six, producing the familiar total of forty-six.
Once the artist is known, the image becomes more — not less — mysterious.
Continue exploring
See how a disciplined range of blue, grey and warm paper tones creates motion in The Great Wave: Five Colours That Create the Storm.
SOURCES & IMAGE STATUS
The image used is marked Public Domain by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and supplied through The Met Open Access programme under CC0. Object identity, date, medium and credit line were rechecked against The Met’s current collection record on 23 August 2026. No modern exhibition, installation, conservation or press photography is reproduced.