, also known as
The Great Wave or simply
The Wave, is a
woodblock print by the Japanese
ukiyo-e artist
Hokusai. It was published sometime between 1830 and 1833 in the late
Edo period as the first print in Hokusai's series . It is Hokusai's most famous work, and one of the best recognized works of Japanese art in the world. It depicts an enormous
wave threatening boats off the coast of the
prefecture of
Kanagawa. While sometimes assumed to be a
tsunami, the wave is, as the picture's title suggests, more likely to be a large
rogue wave. As in all the prints in the series, it depicts the area around
Mount Fuji under particular conditions, and the mountain itself appears in the background.