What paper size format was used for The Great Wave off Kanagawa? Ōban.
Ōban was a standard large format for Japanese ukiyo-e prints, and The Great Wave off Kanagawa was produced in this landscape-oriented size. The surviving print is approximately 25 by 37 centimetres, although exact dimensions vary slightly among impressions because of trimming and paper shrinkage.
The work was not a single hand-painted original in the modern sense. It was a multicolour woodblock print made by a publisher's workshop. Hokusai supplied the design, while carvers and printers transferred it to blocks and printed successive colour layers on paper. The large ōban format gave him room to balance the towering wave, the three boats, and distant Mount Fuji.
Ōban is often confused with chūban, a smaller print format, or with the names of individual papers and pigments. The format does not identify the subject or series; it describes the physical size and orientation of the print. The Great Wave is a yoko-e, or horizontal picture, using the ōban format to create a broad seascape.