The Great Wave: why has this become the defining image of our era? – The Guardian

Okuda thinks that the image shows “the grand scale of nature v humans”. It certainly speaks to the climate crisis, and to migration. Japan was following the sakoku isolationist policy when Hokusai designed his print. Trade was restricted. Foreign nationals couldn’t enter Japan. Overseas travel was forbidden. In this context, the new and exotic Prussian blue pigment – likely imported from Europe via China – would have been startling to Hokusai’s first buyers. Maybe that is another reason why this image feels hopeful. He put the world beyond the wave on paper.
art hokusai painting printing