Hokusai Katsushika analysis

Three of Hokusai Katsushika’s prints titled The Great Wave off Kanagawa, from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, hang in The Rodger L. and Pamela Weston Wing on the entrance level of The Art Institute of Chicago. Upon entering the south entrance of the Japanese wing, departing from The Chauncey McCormick gallery, the prints are the first presented in gallery 107, on the east wall. While facing The Great Wave off Kanagawa, to the right are pages from the three volumes of One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji. Katsushika Hokusai also created these. One Hundred views of Mount Fuji were crafted between 1834-35, 1849 and are woodblock printed books. The Japanese’s color woodblock prints of The Great Wave off Kanagawa were created just before, in 1830-33. Since The Great Wave off Kanagawa is a print, multiple prints were produced.
The Great Wave off Kanagawa prints feature a great breaking wave about to engulf three small fishing vessels. The dominant wave consumes more than half of the space and frames Mount Fuji in the distance. Three tiny boats and an even smaller peak of Mount Fuji seem to serve only to highlight the force of the water. The dramatically curved, upwards line of the wave acts as hooks or claws which almost personify the wave into a predator grasping at its target; the fishermen in delicate fishing boats seem to have no chance against the water.
Hokusai uses implied lines seen with the course of the ‘falling’ sea foam. These lines suggest gravity and the direction of seas surface. The horizon also shows implied line where the form of Mount Fuji and the sky meet; the implied line also gives the prints an atmospheric perception. Though, Hokusai primarily uses outline. He does this to portray the shape of many forms displayed. This is seen in the wave, fisher boats, fishing men, and Mount Fuji. The outline is additionally helpful while capturing the position the fishermen are in. Hokusai use foreshadowing to depict that the fishing men are