Hokusai Great Wave: Prussian Blue from Berlin, 46 Plates, Hokusai at 70, and the Deathbed Words That Changed Everything

Last updated: May 2026 · By Stanislav Arnautov · Berlin

Katsushika Hokusai (Edo/Tokyo, 1760 – Edo/Tokyo, 1849) published the Great Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa-oki nami-ura, literally "Under a Wave off Kanagawa") circa 1831, when he was approximately 70 or 71 years old, as the first plate of the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji series. The print is a woodblock colour print (nishiki-e), approximately 25.7 × 37.9 cm, published in a standard album format by Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudō) in Edo (present-day Tokyo). The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York holds a significant impression; other important impressions are at the British Museum (London), the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston). DeckArts Berlin reproduces the Great Wave as a single deck (~$140) or diptych (~$230) on Grade-A Canadian maple, shipping from Berlin.

Prussian Blue from Berlin: The Pigment's Journey to Japan

The specific blue of the Great Wave is Prussian blue (ferric ferrocyanide, Fe₄[Fe(CN)₆]₃, wavelength approximately 495–500 nm), the synthetic inorganic pigment invented in Berlin in 1704 by the colour maker Johann Jacob Diesbach, accidentally produced during an experiment with iron sulphate, animal blood (the source of potassium carbonate), and potash. Diesbach was working in the laboratory of the alchemist Johann Konrad Dippel in Berlin; the accidental synthesis of a vivid blue from iron and organic matter was recognised immediately as a significant finding.

Prussian blue was commercially available in Europe from approximately 1724 (it was described in a scientific paper by Johann Leonhard Frisch in 1709 and named Berliner Blau / Prussian blue by that date). By the late 18th century it was the most widely used synthetic blue pigment in European painting, adopted by European painters as a cheaper and more stable substitute for natural lapis lazuli ultramarine. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) and its successor organisations traded continuously between Europe and Japan; Japanese merchants and dyers obtained Prussian blue through this trade network from approximately the 1780s onward, though widespread commercial availability in Japan is generally dated to approximately 1820.

Hokusai's use of Prussian blue in the Thirty-Six Views series represents the first major integration of this European synthetic pigment into the Japanese woodblock print tradition. The specific technical advantage of Prussian blue for woodblock printing: its chemical stability under the water-based printing process (unlike organic blues such as indigo, which fade significantly); its ability to produce a wide range of tones from near-black deep blue to pale sky blue by varying the concentration of the pigment in the printing paste; and its specific wavelength (~495 nm, a slightly cyan-leaning blue, distinctly cooler than indigo's warmer blue) that produces the precise water and sky colours of the Great Wave series. The Great Wave's specific blue is not merely an artistic choice; it is the material expression of a 127-year commercial and geographic journey from a Berlin laboratory to a Tokyo printmaking studio.

46 Plates, Not 36: What the Title Actually Says

The series titled Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku Sanjūrokkei) originally comprised 36 plates, but was expanded by Hokusai to 46 during publication: the original 36 plates were so commercially successful that the publisher Eijudō requested 10 additional plates, which were published shortly after the initial series. The total published set therefore contains 46 plates, of which the Great Wave is number 1 (first of the original 36) and the most celebrated.

The discrepancy between the title (36 views) and the total number of plates (46) is not a historical error or a scholarly dispute — it is simply that the commercial success of the original 36 drove the publisher to commission and publish an extension. The 10 additional plates are identified in Japanese art history as the "ura Fuji" (reverse Fuji) plates; they are the 10 views added after the original series, typically identified by their slightly different composition conventions and paper quality.

The Great Wave is therefore not merely the first plate of a 36-plate series; it is the first plate of a 46-plate series — and, having been the first published, it drove the commercial success that justified the additional 10 plates. In a commercial sense, the Great Wave is the reason the series exists in the form it does. Without the Great Wave's immediate popular success in Edo, the publisher would not have sought the additional plates. The series that the Great Wave made possible is the one that contains the Great Wave.

Hokusai at 70: The Artist Who Considered Himself Still Learning

Hokusai was born in Edo in 1760 and lived to age 89, an exceptional lifespan for 19th-century Japan. He had approximately 30 names during his life (a Japanese artistic tradition of adopting new names at significant career transitions) — the most frequently cited count is six significant professional names, of which Katsushika Hokusai (used from approximately 1797 to 1821) and Iitsu (used from 1820 to 1834, during which period the Great Wave was published) are the most art-historically significant.

Hokusai began his professional career as an apprentice printmaker at age 14 (c.1774), studied under the ukiyo-e master Katsukawa Shunshō from approximately 1778, and worked continuously in the woodblock print tradition for approximately 75 years. The Great Wave, published when he was approximately 70–71, was not a late career capstone but a mid-career work in a lifespan of extraordinary productivity that continued for another 18 years after publication. The series that contains the Great Wave — the Thirty-Six Views — was published in the period 1830–1832, when Hokusai was 70–72.

Hokusai's own assessment of his career development was documented in the postface to his One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku Hyakkei, 1834–35), when he was approximately 74 years old: "From around the age of six I had the habit of sketching from life. I became an artist, and from fifty on began producing works that won some reputation, but nothing I did before the age of seventy was really worthy of attention. At seventy-three, finally, I began to understand the true construction of animals, plants, trees, birds, fishes and insects. Consequently at eighty I shall have made more progress; at ninety I shall penetrate the mystery of things; at a hundred I shall certainly have reached a magnificent level; and when I am a hundred and ten, everything I do, be it only a dot or a line, will be alive." He signed this passage with the name Gakyōjin Hokusai: "Old Man Crazy About Painting."

He died in 1849 at age 89, still working — reportedly having produced approximately 30,000 works across his career.

Deathbed Words: "Give Me Another Five Years"

Hokusai's dying words are among the most celebrated self-assessments in the history of world art. Recorded by his biographer and pupil Tsuyuki Egaku, his final words on his deathbed in 1849 were (in translation): "If only Heaven had given me just another ten years... just five more years, then I could have become a true painter." Some versions of the recorded quote say ten years; others say five; the most commonly cited English translation uses "another five years." The Japanese original — which survives in Egaku's biographical notes — uses the expression "go-nen no inochi" (five years of life): the specific term is years of life, not years of work, suggesting that Hokusai understood that the remaining obstacle to becoming a "true painter" was time, not ability or knowledge.

The biographical irony of the deathbed quote: Hokusai died at 89, having produced approximately 30,000 works over 75 years of professional practice. He had painted the Great Wave at 70 — a work now regarded as one of the canonical masterworks of world art — and had continued producing significant work for another 18 years. He considered himself still in his apprenticeship. The person who made the most celebrated print in the history of Japanese art, who had worked continuously for three-quarters of a century, and who had been professionally celebrated for decades, died believing he had not yet become a true painter and needed five more years to get there. The gap between external recognition and internal assessment is rarely more starkly documented.

For the DeckArts customer who has the Great Wave in their living room or study: the biographical ambient is specific. The work hanging on the wall was made by someone who did not consider it his best work, who considered himself still learning when he made it, and who died at 89 believing he needed five more years. The Great Wave is not the work of a master at his peak; it is the work of a student still in progress, at 70, on his way to becoming a true painter.

The Wave Physics: What Kind of Wave Is It

The wave depicted in the Great Wave is a specific type of ocean wave: a clapotis or standing wave formed by the reflection of ocean swell against a coastal structure or by the collision of opposing wave trains. The specific visual characteristics that identify the Great Wave as this type rather than as a standard breaking wave: the multiple descending "claw" foam fingers at the wave's crest (characteristic of a clapotis's sharp vertical face and overhanging foam); the wave's near-vertical face (a standard breaking wave has a more gradual face angle); and the apparent height of the wave relative to the boat scale beneath it.

The estimated height of the Great Wave has been analysed by oceanographers at approximately 12–15 metres at the depicted moment of maximum height, based on the ratio of wave height to the estimated length of the oshiokuri-bune (transport boats) beneath it. This is within the range of rogue waves (anomalously large waves defined as more than twice the significant wave height of surrounding sea state) that are documented in the waters around the Izu or Bōsō peninsulas south of Tokyo Bay, where the composition is set.

The foam fingers at the wave's crest are the composition's most studied element from a fluid dynamics perspective: the curved, hook-like foam formations that Hokusai depicted have been compared to actual photographs of breaking wave foam and to mathematical models of wave crest instability. The specific curl of each foam finger — which approximates a logarithmic spiral, the same mathematical form as the gold spirals of Klimt's Tree of Life and the nautilus shell — has led some fluid dynamics researchers to suggest that Hokusai was depicting a mathematically accurate observation of foam instability, whether from direct observation or from exceptional visual memory. The foam fingers are not decorative; they are accurate.

Mount Fuji in the Background: The Compositional Anchor

Mount Fuji appears in the lower centre of the Great Wave's composition, between the two forward-leaning oshiokuri-bune, as a small blue-white cone approximately one-tenth the height of the wave. Its position in the composition is specific: Fuji is at approximately the same height as the boats, below the wave's crest, smaller than the wave's foam fingers. This compositional relationship — the sacred mountain dwarfed by the natural wave — is the print's central conceptual argument: the permanent (Fuji, the sacred and ancient mountain, dormant volcano, symbol of Japan's spiritual identity) is made temporarily small by the transient (the wave, the single moment of maximum natural force that will pass in seconds).

The compositional tradition of depicting Mount Fuji as a distant background element in a composition dominated by human activity or natural force was Hokusai's specific invention for the Thirty-Six Views series. Previous Japanese art had typically depicted Fuji as the composition's primary subject; Hokusai made it the background anchor in a series of compositions where the foreground is always dominated by the activities and forces of the human and natural world around Fuji. The Great Wave takes this compositional strategy to its extreme: Fuji is almost invisible in a composition dominated by a wave that is its temporary superior.

The Three Oshiokuri-bune: The Fishermen at Risk

The three boats in the Great Wave are oshiokuri-bune — a specific type of Japanese fast transport vessel used to carry fresh fish from the fishing grounds in Sagami Bay to the Edo fish market. The oshiokuri-bune were the express delivery vehicles of early 19th-century Tokyo's food supply: fast, narrow, with a crew of approximately 8 rowers and a capacity of approximately 500–600 kilograms of fresh fish packed in salt water barrels. The specific boat type is identifiable from the oar configuration, the vessel's beam-to-length ratio, and the low freeboard (the distance between the waterline and the boat's edge).

The 8 figures visible in each boat are the crew: they are depicted in a posture of maximum physical effort and maximum exposure — leaning forward with their heads down, gripping the side of the vessel, as the wave rises above them. They are not passive victims; they are working, maintaining control of the vessel, attempting to angle the bow into the wave. The specific posture — heads low, bodies angled forward, hands gripping — is the maritime technique for riding a large wave in a small boat: present the bow, reduce windage, grip, and wait for the wave to pass.

The question of whether the crew survives the wave is unanswered by the composition: the print depicts the single moment before the wave breaks, not the moment after. This temporal suspension — the permanently imminent threat, the wave that is always about to break and never does — is one of the Great Wave's most psychologically powerful properties. The threat is maximum and the outcome is permanently unresolved.

Great Wave for Living Room and Bedroom: Installation Guide

The Great Wave is the DeckArts work most frequently requested for both living room and bedroom installations — its cool Prussian blue palette, its Japanese compositional clarity, and its biographical depth make it appropriate for almost any room type. The specific installation considerations for each room:

Living room (above sofa): The Great Wave diptych (~$230, approximately 45 cm wide) or triptych (~$310, approximately 70 cm wide) above the sofa on the primary wall. For living rooms with warm white walls (Scandinavian or Japandi), the Prussian blue provides the room's single cool chromatic event — the canonical Japandi and Scandinavian installation. For living rooms with dark walls (navy, forest green, charcoal), the wave creates the chromatic and compositional event described in the dark wall section below. Sizing: apply the 50–75% rule to sofa width. For a 140–160 cm sofa, the triptych (~70 cm) hits 44–50% of width; for precise rule compliance on larger sofas (160–180 cm), the 4-deck gallery (~95 cm, ~$430) is the correct format.

Bedroom (above bed): The Great Wave single deck (~$140) or diptych (~$230) above the bed creates a specific bedroom ambient: natural force above the room's rest space. The single deck — a concentrated section of the composition, either the wave crest or the Fuji-boats section — creates an intimate close encounter with the composition at bedroom scale. The diptych captures more of the compositional width while remaining proportionate to most bed widths (140–160 cm). Above the bed on deep navy, the wave and the wall create the continuous blue nocturnal field; on warm white, the wave is the room's single cool botanical-scale accent.

Study or dark academia desk: Single deck (~$140) on forest green or warm charcoal. The biographical content — the 70-year-old artist who considered himself still learning, who died believing he needed five more years to become a true painter — creates the specific dark academia ambient of sustained practice without arrival at a permanent conclusion.

Great Wave on Dark Walls: Navy, Charcoal, Forest Green

Deep navy (#1B2A4A): The most immersive Great Wave installation. The Prussian blue of the wave and the deep navy of the wall occupy adjacent chromatic territories — both are blue, but the Prussian blue is slightly more saturated and more cyan-leaning than the navy's blue-purple. The result is that the wave's sky zone appears to extend into the wall: the continuous blue field of painting and wall creates the impression of being inside the wave. The cream foam fingers and the pale grey sky advance as bright accents from the continuous blue ground. Mount Fuji, barely visible against the wave, becomes even smaller against the expanded blue field. The boats and figures disappear into the dark lower section of the composition. This is the most immersive and the most Japonisme-appropriate installation: the room becomes the ocean.

Warm charcoal (#3A3A3A): The most compositionally clear installation. The charcoal provides a cool-neutral dark ground against which every element of the Great Wave's composition reads with maximum separation: the Prussian blue sky against the charcoal dark, the cream foam against both, the blue-black wave hollow as the darkest element, the pale Fuji as the smallest element. The composition is fully legible at any viewing distance. For a contemporary living room or study that wants the Great Wave's full compositional content without the immersion of the navy installation, warm charcoal is the most versatile dark choice.

Forest green (#2D5016): The most organically coherent installation. Forest green and Prussian blue are both cool but chromically different — the green has warm-organic undertones absent from the Prussian blue. The Great Wave on forest green creates a warm-organic-ground-versus-cool-blue tension that is different from both the navy's blue-on-blue immersion and the charcoal's neutral contrast. The cream foam advances from the dark organic green as the composition's warmest and brightest element. This is the most specifically botanical installation: the organic wave in an organic colour environment, the Prussian blue as the precise material link between Japan's printing tradition and Berlin's chemical invention.

DeckArts

Hokusai — Great Wave Diptych (~$230)

c.1831, plate 1 of 46. Hokusai at age ~70. Prussian blue invented Berlin 1704. Deathbed: "Give me another five years." 46 plates, not 36. From ~$140 single / ~$230 diptych / ~$310 triptych. Canadian maple. Berlin.

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FAQ

What pigment is the blue in Hokusai's Great Wave?

The blue in Hokusai's Great Wave (c.1831) is Prussian blue (ferric ferrocyanide, Fe₄[Fe(CN)₆]₃, ~495–500 nm), a synthetic inorganic pigment invented in Berlin in 1704 by Johann Jacob Diesbach, accidentally produced in the laboratory of alchemist Johann Konrad Dippel. Prussian blue reached Japan through Dutch East India Company trade networks from approximately the 1780s onward, with widespread commercial availability in Japan from approximately 1820. The Great Wave series is the first major integration of this European synthetic pigment into Japanese woodblock print tradition. DeckArts from ~$140.

How many plates are in Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji?

46 plates in total, not 36. The series titled Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku Sanjūrokkei, published c.1830–32) originally comprised 36 plates; it was expanded by Hokusai to 46 during publication because the original 36 were commercially successful enough that the publisher Eijudō requested 10 additional plates (the "ura Fuji" or reverse-Fuji views). The Great Wave is plate 1 of the original 36 and therefore plate 1 of the complete 46-plate series. DeckArts Great Wave from ~$140 single.

How old was Hokusai when he painted the Great Wave?

Hokusai was approximately 70–71 years old when the Great Wave was published (c.1831). He was born in Edo (present-day Tokyo) in 1760 and died in 1849 at age 89. He continued working for another 18 years after the Great Wave's publication. His own assessment (from the postface to One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, 1834–35, at age ~74): "nothing I did before the age of seventy was really worthy of attention." His deathbed words: "Give me another five years, and I could have become a true painter." DeckArts from ~$140.

What is the Great Wave about?

Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa (c.1831, plate 1 of 46, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji) depicts three oshiokuri-bune (fast fish-transport vessels from the Sagami Bay fishing grounds) beneath a rogue wave approximately 12–15 metres high, with Mount Fuji visible as a small blue-white cone in the background. The compositional argument: the permanent (Fuji, sacred mountain) is made temporarily small by the transient (the wave, a single moment of maximum natural force). The crew of approximately 8 per boat is shown working to survive — heads down, gripping, presenting the bow. Whether they survive is permanently unresolved. DeckArts from ~$140.

What wall colour for Hokusai Great Wave?

Five wall colours work well with the Great Wave: warm white (Japandi/Scandinavian cool accent — most versatile), deep navy (most immersive — wave and wall merge into continuous blue field, cream foam floats), warm charcoal (most compositionally clear — every element reads at maximum separation), forest green (most organic — warm botanical ground versus cool Prussian blue), pale grey (contemporary neutral). All require warm LED 2700K. DeckArts from ~$140 single / ~$230 diptych / ~$310 triptych.

Article Summary

Katsushika Hokusai (Edo 1760 – Edo 1849, age 89, ~30,000 works) published Great Wave off Kanagawa (c.1831, woodblock nishiki-e, ~25.7 × 37.9 cm) at age ~70–71 as plate 1 of Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. Series actually 46 plates (original 36 + 10 ura Fuji added due to commercial success). Prussian blue: invented Berlin 1704 by Diesbach in Dippel's laboratory; reached Japan via VOC trade ~1780s; widespread commercial availability Japan ~1820; Great Wave series = first major ukiyo-e integration. Hokusai self-assessment (Fugaku Hyakkei 1834–35, age ~74): nothing worthy of attention before 70; at 90 shall penetrate mystery; at 100 magnificent; at 110 every dot alive. Signed: "Old Man Crazy About Painting." Deathbed (1849, age 89): "Go-nen no inochi" — "Give me another five years of life; then I could have become a true painter." Wave physics: clapotis/rogue wave, est. 12–15m, foam fingers approximate logarithmic spirals (fluid dynamics accuracy documented). Fuji: compositional anchor, made smaller than wave — permanent dwarfed by transient. Boats: oshiokuri-bune, 8 crew each, Sagami Bay fish transport, outcome permanently unresolved. Best walls: warm white (Japandi/Scandinavian), deep navy (immersive), charcoal (clear), forest green (organic). DeckArts from ~$140 single / ~$230 diptych. Canadian maple. UV archival 100+ years. Berlin. 30-day return.

About the Author

Stanislav Arnautov is the founder of DeckArts and a creative director originally from Ukraine, now based in Berlin. With experience in branding, merchandise design and vector graphics, Stanislav connects classical art, skateboard culture and contemporary interior design through premium skateboard wall art.