{"id":16722,"date":"2025-04-08T10:37:35","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T08:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chateaunantes.fr\/?page_id=16722"},"modified":"2025-06-27T17:32:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T15:32:02","slug":"water-in-hokusais-work","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.chateaunantes.fr\/en\/water-in-hokusais-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Water in Hokusai\u2019s work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The theme of water in Hokusai\u2019s work inevitably brings to mind Under the Wave off Kanagawa<\/em>. But this iconic piece, done when the artist was seventy, overshadows the artist\u2019s carefully considered approach, dating back to his earliest works, on how best to capture the effects and movements of water, and to faithfully translate its vital energy to the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From his Shunr\u014d period (1778-1794) onwards, Hokusai incorporated the motif of waves crashing against rocks in his prints. Initially, he used it as a simple decorative element in the background. Then in 1797, in the plate Spring at Enoshima<\/em>, the waves take on greater importance within the composition. Hokusai worked towards a faithful and naturalistic reproduction of the waves\u2019 movement, even if they did not yet constitute the print\u2019s main subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subsequently, his engravings devoted to landscapes in the Western style, like those published in his albums of models (including the one devoted to combs and tobacco pipes), attest to a deepening of the theme of the wave and an intensification of the artist\u2019s interest in the subject that would lead him to his masterpiece a few decades later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the wave motif is prominent in Hokusai\u2019s work, the different variations of the effects of water\u2014whether the sea, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, or even rain\u2014also serve as a pretext for graphic exploration. Across his productions, particularly in his famous Manga,<\/em> ripples, swirls, reflections, transparencies, sparkles, droplets, sea spray, and steam can all be seen.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The delicate and subtle exploration of this fleeting element that is water surely refers to the Buddhist precepts to which Hokusai was attached, such as the impermanence of things. The culmination of this work comes in three major series produced between 1830 and 1834: Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji<\/em>, A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provinces<\/em>, and Remarkable Views of Famous Bridges in Various Provinces<\/em>. At the end of his life, the masterful treatment of two waves, masculine and feminine, in powerful swirls on the ceiling of the festival floats for the town of Obuse may be read as a passage to another, more spiritual dimension, illustrating Hokusai\u2019s quest to transmit the energy and life force of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Masterpieces from the Hokusai-kan Museum, Obuse<\/h3><\/div><\/div><\/a>
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Katsushika Hokusai 1760-1849 : Chronology of the Edo period<\/h3><\/div><\/div><\/a>
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The Great Wave<\/h3><\/div><\/div><\/a>
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Female beauties and actors of the Edo period<\/h3><\/div><\/div><\/a>
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Ukiyo-e\u00a0<\/h3><\/div><\/div><\/a>
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Painting nature<\/h3><\/div><\/div><\/a>
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Observing and sublimating the landscape<\/h3><\/div><\/div><\/a>
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Hokusai in Obuse\u00a0<\/h3><\/div><\/div><\/a>
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Hokusai and Mount Fuji<\/h3><\/div><\/div><\/a>
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The theme of water in Hokusai\u2019s work inevitably brings to mind Under the Wave off Kanagawa. But this iconic piece, done when the artist was seventy, overshadows the artist\u2019s carefully considered approach, dating back to his earliest works, on how best to capture the effects and movements of water, and to faithfully translate its vital […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":17384,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"indications-recherche":[],"class_list":["post-16722","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWater in Hokusai\u2019s work - Ch\u00e2teau des ducs de Bretagne | Mus\u00e9e d\u2019histoire de Nantes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chateaunantes.fr\/en\/water-in-hokusais-work\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Water in Hokusai\u2019s work - Ch\u00e2teau des ducs de Bretagne | Mus\u00e9e d\u2019histoire de Nantes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The theme of water in Hokusai\u2019s work inevitably brings to mind Under the Wave off Kanagawa. 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