In the Hollow of a Wave off the Coast at Kanagawa

In the Hollow of a Wave off the Coast at Kanagawa, undated in the Victoria and Albert Museum's catalogue, is closely related to the iconic Under the Wave off Kanagawa (the Great Wave) that opens Katsushika Hokusai's Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji of around 1831. The composition shows fishermen in delivery boats crouched against a towering wave that curls high above them, with Mount Fuji visible in the distance between troughs of water. Hokusai's design draws on a sequence of earlier wave compositions that he developed across more than three decades, including images from Western-influenced perspective prints of his Sori period. As a ukiyo-e print, the work depends on a sophisticated layering of Prussian blue, deep indigo and white that defines the curve, foam and spray of the wave. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London preserves an impression that supports comparison with the dated Great Wave and with related coastal designs. As a foundational image of Edo ukiyo-e, the work has had an unrivalled influence on European art and design, inspiring composers, painters and graphic designers from Debussy and Van Gogh onward. The V&A holdings continue to anchor international scholarship on the Hokusai wave designs, their carved-block construction, their colour states and the publisher-censor seals that establish the chronology of their printing.