The Great Wave off Kanagawa is a prime example of the Japanese art movement Ukiyo-e. Katsushika Hokusai created the print as part of a landscape series within this wide-ranging Edo-period tradition.
Ukiyo-e means “pictures of the floating world.” It flourished from the 17th through the 19th centuries and included paintings and woodblock prints depicting actors, courtesans, sumo wrestlers, travel scenes, landscapes, legends, and everyday pleasures.
Hokusai helped broaden ukiyo-e beyond its earlier emphasis on celebrity portraits. His Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji brought landscape imagery to the center, using dramatic viewpoints, bold contours, and influences from Western-style perspective.
The Great Wave is sometimes mistakenly labeled simply as “Japanese woodblock art,” which describes its medium rather than its movement. It is also not primarily a work about Kabuki, Zen, or Shinto, though Japanese religion, travel, and popular culture shaped the world in which ukiyo-e developed.