Comment by esperent
6 days ago
The Great Wave is a deservedly famous piece of art, but if it's the only thing of Hokusai that you know, do yourself a favor and look up some of his other work.
Waterfall penance is my favorite.
https://www.tremontauctions.com/auction-lot/hokusai-katsushi...
He also made some weird art involving an octopus and a woman, which is insightful both for understanding the other side of a famous artist, and also some of the weirder things in modern Japanese manga.
Edit: after I made this comment I was reminded of a comic I saw on reddit, where the artist was bemoaning their dream of getting paid to draw beautiful art, versus the reality where the only people willing to actually pay for art all want furry porn. So maybe not much has changed really, and maybe it says less about Japanese culture, and more about the general human condition.
https://www.wikiart.org/en/katsushika-hokusai/all-works#!#fi...
I suggest you look up the documentary _Hokusai: Old Man Crazy to Paint_ .[0]
It discusses how Hokusai changed his artistic style every ~10 years for his own pleasure.
[0] https://docuwiki.net/index.php?title=Hokusai:_Old_Man_Crazy_...
"The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife" is an amazing piece of art (generally considered NSFW).
The entire "Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji" series is phenomenal, really a testament to the japanese philosophy of sublime minimalism. But nothing really hits me like The Great Wave, with its dramatic foreground composition (look at those guys clinging to the boats!) and the tranquil majesty of Fuji in the distance.