RISD Museum 

To encourage students to think about what makes this image so powerful, ask them to focus on how Hokusai used scale, color, and line. Make your own observations about what you notice about scale (the size of different parts in relation to each other), color and types of lines. Circle important areas and write your notes about these key elements. Discuss your observations.  

This print is part of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, a series made when artist Katsushika Hokusai was in his seventies. The series was so successful that Hokusai produced 10 additional scenes after the first 36 prints. Appreciated in their own time in Japan and in other countries for their innovative composition and vibrant color, these works are the result of Hokusai’s experiments with representing nature and his innovative use of the synthetic pigment Prussian blue.
The elements of water and earth are the dominant subjects of this print. Mount Fuji, still and stable in the background, counters the dynamic power of the great wave, and the humans in the barges in the foreground, possibly carrying fish, seem fragile and vulnerable. The title lets us know that this is a real place: Kanagawa is a prefecture (or province) of Japan along the coast near Mount Fuji. 


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Under the Great Wave, off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura)

Discussion Question 1: Color, Scale, and Line

Resource Kit Overview: Under the Great Wave, off Kanagawa

Discussion Questions 2-4: Nature, Place, and Geography 

Katsushika Hokusai,  Under the Great Wave, off Kanagawa, ca. 1829-1833

About the Work: Under the Great Wave, off Kanagawa

Writing/Making/Doing: Under the Great Wave, off Kanagawa

Virtual Visit: Under the Great Wave, off Kanagawa

Write a haiku inspired by Hokusai’s print that captures its imagery and mood.

Writing Haikus: Under the Great Wave, off Kanagawa

Looking at the objects around you, consider how many of them were created by an artist or designer. Artists and designers are problem solvers, inventors, and skilled technicians; they express the complexity of human experience in their times, communicate ideas, fulfill practical needs, and challenge us to stretch our own views. Explore different artists and designers who represent a broad range of time periods and cultures.



Artists’ Ideas, Materials, & Process: Under the Great Wave

Discussion Question 1: Color, Scale, and Line