“Hokusai’s Great Wave: Biography of a Global Icon” (Guth, 2015)

“Hokusai’s Great Wave: Biography of a Global Icon” (Guth, 2015)

Kanagawa – Japan
Art - Print
Wooden Block

“Hokusai’s “Great Wave,” as it is commonly known today, is arguably one of Japan’s most successful exports, its commanding cresting profile instantly recognizable no matter how different its representations in media and style. In this richly illustrated and highly original study, Christine Guth examines the iconic wave from its first publication in 1831 through the remarkable range of its articulations, arguing that it has been a site where the tensions, contradictions, and, especially, the productive creativities of the local and the global have been negotiated and expressed. She follows the wave’s trajectory across geographies, linking its movements with larger political, economic, technological, and sociocultural developments. Adopting a case study approach, Guth explores issues that map the social life of the iconic wave across time and place, from the initial reception of the woodblock print in Japan, to the image’s adaptations as part of “international nationalism,” its place in American perceptions of Japan, its commercial adoption for lifestyle branding, and finally to its identification as a tsunami, bringing not culture but disaster in its wake” (University of Hawaii Press, n.d.).

Christine Guth

Guth, C. M. E. (2015). Hokusai’s Great Wave: Biography of a Global Icon. University of Hawaiʻi Press.

University of Hawaiʻi Press

© 2025 University of Hawai'i

Jpg image of eBook

ISBN: 9780824853952, 0824853954

Edo Period (1615–1868) – Japan