The Great Wave at Kanagawa
Hokusai's most famous picture from a Series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Edo period (1615-1868), ca. 1830-32. Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760-1849).
The print - said to have inspired both Debussy's "La Mer" and Rilke's "Der Berg"- was chosen for this website for its sheer graphic beauty, and for its way of depicting the compelling forces of change and stability: the contrast between the crash of the wave and the tiny stable pyramid of Mount Fuji.
The waves form a frame through which we see Mt. Fuji in the distance. The large wave forms a massive yin to the yang of empty space under it. In the foreground, a small peaked wave forms a miniature Mt. Fuji, which is repeated hundreds of miles away in the enormous Mt. Fuji which shrinks through perspective; the wavelet is larger than the mountain. The yin violence of Nature is counterbalanced by the yang relaxed confidence of expert fishermen.