Katsushika Hokusai
Fuji from Kanaya on the Tōkaidō
From $80
The Great Wave was designed for the woodblock, and its power is in the blue. Our Great Wave of Kanagawa print is made from a fine woodblock impression of Hokusai’s design in the Library of Congress, graded beside it so the Prussian blue stays deep and the paper keeps its warm, aged tone. It reads as the print itself rather than a poster of it, with every line of the design intact.
Canvas, framed or paper
Stretched canvas. Printed on cotton canvas and stretched taut over a frame. The edges are mirror-wrapped, so the picture continues around the sides and none of it is lost to the fold.
Framed canvas. The same canvas, set in a black, white, natural wood or dark wood frame 0.83 in deep. The frame gives the work a finished edge and a little more presence on the wall.
Framed print. Printed on fine art matte paper and framed in solid pine, behind shatterproof plexiglass, in black, white, natural wood or dark wood. It arrives ready to hang. Framed sizes are measured on the outside of the frame.
Fine art print. Printed on 310gsm fine art matte paper, for framing your own way. It travels rolled and protected. From 18x24 inch.
Sizes
18x12 inch, 24x16 inch, 28x20 inch, 40x28 inch. Framed sizes are measured on the outside of the frame, so the visible painting is a little smaller.
On your wall
Its wide shape sits naturally above a bed or a desk, and the blues bring calm to a pared-back room of indigo, white oak and pale linen. At 40x28 inch it becomes the centre of the room; at 18x12 inch it rewards a closer look in a study or a hallway.
About the painting
The Great Wave of Kanagawa by Hokusai
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
Hokusai was about 70 when he made it. That was around 1830 to 1832, as part of a set of prints called Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. Three small boats ride low under a giant wave, and the rowers hold on. Far behind them, Mount Fuji, Japan’s sacred mountain, sits tiny and still.
Hokusai’s blue
This is a woodblock print, not a painting. Each colour was carved into its own block of wood and pressed onto paper by hand. The deep blue, called Prussian blue, was brand new in Japan at the time. The printers used it twice, darker in the stripes of the wave and pure in its curve, so the water looks deeper as it rises. That blue is what makes Hokusai’s Great Wave of Kanagawa feel cold and alive.
Ukiyo-e
Ukiyo-e means “pictures of the floating world.” These were prints made for ordinary people to buy and enjoy at home. The Great Wave has been printed again and again for almost two hundred years, and it still belongs on an everyday wall: yours, where the wave is always about to break and never does.
Read the story
Hokusai made the most famous wave in the world when he was seventy years old, and he thought he was only getting started.
It's around 1830, in Edo, the city we now call Tokyo.
Two years earlier an illness struck him down; he got back up, he said, with a citrus medicine he made himself.
His wife has died, his daughter has come home to help him work, and there's never enough money.
Now his publisher has something new from Europe: a deep, bright blue, cheap enough at last to use.
Hokusai plans a set of prints of Mount Fuji, Japan's sacred mountain, near and far, in every kind of weather.
In one of them, the sea rises up.
A giant wave curls over three narrow boats, and the rowers bend low and hold on.
Far behind, small and calm, sits Mount Fuji, the great mountain no bigger than a wave.
He draws the design, carvers cut a block of wood for every colour, and printers press the new blue in by hand, layer on layer.
The prints are sold for ordinary homes.
Three years later he writes that nothing he made before seventy was worth much.
At a hundred, he hopes, he'll be good, and at a hundred and ten every dot and line he draws will be alive.
The wave is still about to break, and it never does.
Hold on with the rowers. Fuji is watching.
The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Hokusai, about 1831.
How each piece is brought to life
Faithful to the original, and made to be felt on your wall.
Graded against the original
We compare every work with the original as we grade it, keeping the artist’s colours true while bringing back their depth and glow. Every mark stays the artist’s own.
Printed for you
Printed to order on cotton canvas or fine art paper, then framed if you chose a frame, in 1 to 3 business days.
On your wall
It arrives 5 to 12 business days later, tracked and free anywhere in the US. Framed pieces come ready to hang.
Questions
Is this the original painting?
No. The original hangs in a museum. What you receive is a fine art reproduction, remastered from the original and printed for you, with every mark where the artist left it.
Will the colour look flat?
This is where most reproductions disappoint, and it is where we spend the most time. Each work is graded side by side with the original: faithful to the artist’s colours, with the depth and warmth brought back, so it moves you on the wall the way it was meant to. Canvas reads a touch softer than a backlit screen, and every screen shows colour a little differently.
Will the edges be cropped?
Each size is a standard frame size, so we fit the painting by trimming a little from its edges. We never stretch or squash it, and we check every size by eye so no face, figure or signature is cut. On canvas the edges are mirror-wrapped, which keeps the whole picture on the front.
Which size is right for my wall?
Aim for about two-thirds the width of the furniture beneath it. Over a sofa or a sideboard, one of the two largest sizes will hold the wall. The size guide lists every size in inches and centimetres, with the kind of wall each one suits.
How long does it take?
Your piece is printed in 1–3 business days, then spends 5–12 business days in transit, tracked all the way. Delivery is free anywhere in the US. We are unable to deliver to PO boxes.
What if it arrives damaged?
Send us a photograph and we will remake it and send it again. There is nothing to return.
Can I return it?
Yes, within 30 days of delivery. Our returns policy has the details.
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Printed to order
Graded against the original, then printed for you on cotton canvas or fine art paper in 1–3 business days.
The whole painting
Every mark is the artist’s own, and canvas edges are mirror-wrapped so the whole picture stays on the front.
Free US shipping
On every order, tracked, 5–12 business days in transit.
30-day returns
Returns and exchanges within 30 days of delivery.
