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.