MENTION THE Great Wave, and many can immediately picture the towering indigo columns of water, capped by clawlike tendrils of churning foam. These sublime waves frame a distant view of Mt. Fuji at center, and—almost hidden within the churning sea—three oshiokuri-bune, or fishing skiffs, hug the wave troughs. Whether viewed in a museum collection, as an appropriated copy emblazoned on a coffee mug, or even by way of the work’s translation into a popular text emoji, the print’s continued iconicity often supersedes the average admirer’s knowledge of the work, actually titled Under the Wave off Kanagawa, painted by Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849).
Instead, the work has become a sort of defining example of , the
