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deepfield67 t1_j1p03ig wrote

I love the use of Hokusai's waves underneath. One of my favorite paintings...or is that a woodblock? I think it might be a woodblock but either way I've always loved it.

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YouDrewIt OP t1_j1p4czj wrote

If I remember correctly this was woodblock. I love the chaos and serenity it brings.

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deepfield67 t1_j1p51b8 wrote

I love the little wave peaks like fingertips, or like a fractal pattern, each wave has several tiny waves, each made of several tinier waves. It evokes the idea of Indra's Web, or Indra's Net, an infinite net or spiderweb covered in dew, where every droplet contains in it the reflection of every other droplet, an expression of pratityasamutpada, the dependent origination of all things.

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YouDrewIt OP t1_j1p5oxn wrote

Damn, I love that view. I dont think I’ll ever look at it the same.

I also enjoy how the fishermen are looking at the waves below, yet the great wave above will likely be their demise.

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deepfield67 t1_j1p63yi wrote

Oh wow I never really noticed that. That's definitely an apt metaphor for all people of all times. The universe loves to misdirect us with one hand while it slaps us with the other.

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chronoboy1985 t1_j1ps4n0 wrote

Fun Fact: The reason that piece was so popular (Hokusai’s Great Wave off Kanagawa) in Japan was because it was one of the first paintings/prints to use a deep blue color. If you look at prints from the previous centuries and even before the Sengoku Era, you never see blues or purples. If you do, they are usually faded or very light. Being a hermetic, isolationist country for centuries, they never had the materials to create blue dye. In the 1800’s they had limited trade with Europe and were able to acquire the synthetic “Prussian Blue” dye from Holland.

Hokusai used it profusely in his 36 Views of Mount Fuji series while using avant-garde perspective techniques that were all the rage in Europe. The striking, beautiful color of that particular print is what ultimately made it a world famous artwork. Im pretty sure I read somewhere that it’s either the most duplicated print in the world. or definitely close.

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deepfield67 t1_j1q0soz wrote

Oh that's interesting. So that would have been around the Edo period, 1800s, when they opened Japan up a bit to foreign trade? It's interesting that Japan hadn't figured out a blue dye of their own. Do you know what is used to make Prussian blue that Japan didn't have, or hadn't figured out how to make?

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