I knew sooner or later that my desk calendar would display what must be the most famous Japanese painting of all time. The Great Wave of Kanagawa, from the series 36 Views of Mount Fiji was painted by Katsushika Hokusai(1760-1849)in 1832. The one in the calendar is in a private collection. But how many impressions from the woodblocks Hokusai made is unkown. The articifial pigment Prussian Blue was then recently available in Japan and he made good use of it. Some of the versions have lost some vibrancy, not just in the ocean but the sky too which varies from pink to white, depending on how the prints have been stored over the last 180 years.
Interestingly, a month or so ago I came across a fascinating paper in the Notes and records of the Royal Society which posed the question, what kind of wave did Hokusai depict? It has often been used as an example of a tsunami, but the authors argue convincingly that this view is mistaken and that it is a depiction of an exceptionally large storm wave. They present the visual evidence of the three boats and storm clouds surrounding Mount Fuji. The boats are 'oshiokuri-bune, fast cargo boats that were developed for the fishery trade but would carry everything from fresh and dried fish to rice, vegetables, charcoal and logs'. The stormy culumonimbus clouds are hardly discernible in this reproduction of the famous print, but can be seen in the illustration accompanying the article.
The authors' real evidence comes from an in-depth analysis and evaluation of the wave in terms of the fluid dynamics of breaking waves and in particular of the species termed plunging breakers and conclude that Hokusai's wave is a rogue storm wave. Out at sea a tsunami does not break in this fashion, it is only when it reaches the shore that the wave breaks. The sailors are meeting this wave head-on a typical response to storm waves; they have not been caught by surprise.
They further contend that the idea that this print depicts a tsunami is a relatively recent notion, dating back only to the 1960s at most. They surmise that because the name tsunami is Japanese then Hokusai must have illustrated one, and point out that this word-association is potentially damaging. 'It is ironic that after science has abandoned the potentially misleading phrase ‘tidal wave’ in favour of tsunami, this Hokusai image used as a tsunami icon may cause problems with tsunami recognition that the term ‘tidal wave’ would not have done: notably the aspect of identifying the withdrawal of the sea like an exceptionally low tide, in many instances the first hint of a tsunami, which people may take advantage of to save their lives.' Ironic indeed!
Reference: Julyan H.E. Cartwright and Hisami Nakamura, What kind of wave is Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa? Notes Rec. R. Soc. (2009) 63, 119–135.