The Great Wave Analysis

Katsushika Hokusai’s print entitled The Great Wave is a Japanese art during the period ukiyo-e which is a movement that depicts everyday life. There were many materials used in this piece. Including “Ink, Paper, Printing blocks, Prints, Relief prints, Wood blocks, Woodblock prints”(metmuseum). The print was created after the artists fame had died down. In his late seventies, to pass time. Hokusai printed different views of Mount Fuji. The Great Wave being one of 36 and the most known.
Hokusai, born in 1760 in Edo (now Tokyo), worked in Shunshō's studio. Shunshō was a Japanese artist who is very well known for The Woman in Red (metmuseum). Early in his career, Hokusai painted a series of images of the Kabuki actors. After the death of Shunshō,
The modernization that occured during this period greatly influenced the stable, classic image that is the is The Great Wave.
When Hokusai was about 76, he published his uncompleted, last print series entitled One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by the Nurse. Hokusai illustrates scenes of daily lives through nurses. In these prints, one can see the wisdom and knowledge of these nurses (Hokusai Beyond the Great Wave, 2017). Due to the fact that these nurses were being painted by such a famous artist, nurses must have been praised during this time period. Or, nurses were underappreciated and Hokusai was trying to show the beauty and wisdom behind a nurses work. Below are two images from that
The article Healthcare and The Three Great Waves states “The wave is a fundamental instrument of sea-change”(Roy Smythe, M.D. 2016). Relating to the chaos and peace a wave and nursing have in common. Like an ocean, healthcare has many obstacles, unknowns and unforeseen outcomes. Viewing art has many benefits. It can change your mood, emotion and the wave you see the world, at least it does for me. Hokusai’s print of The Great Wave has so many interpretations, colors and shapes. It really symbolizes how uncertain the future is. How one will be tested and possibly knocked down. The wave symbolizes the challenge that is life and the growth that comes with life. How success takes time, much like the growth of the wave. The idea of water and its transparency yet unforeseen uncertainty really stands for what the world is. The Great Wave will never become something that is not of importance. It is highly recognisable and movement. It is the simplicity of the image and use of colors that draws the eye in. When closely looking, the movement and flow of the wave brings a calm sense to such an overpowering image.The depth and cultural history would make a great asset to a