Hokusai’s ukiyo-e print The Great Wave off Kanagawa was first published around 1831.
The print was part of Hokusai’s celebrated series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, produced during Japan’s Edo period. Its full Japanese title is Kanagawa-oki nami ura, meaning “Under the Wave off Kanagawa.” The design shows three boats threatened by a towering wave, with Mount Fuji visible in the distance.
The date is often given as about 1831 because surviving ukiyo-e prints do not always carry a modern publication date. Art historians generally place the first issue in the early 1830s, with 1831 the commonly cited year. The series was issued by the publisher Nishimura Eijudō.
The Great Wave is sometimes mistaken for a painting, but it is a multicolored woodblock print. Its striking blue tones were helped by the use of imported Prussian blue, a pigment that became popular in Japanese printmaking during the nineteenth century.