Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)

In the pictureA huge wave rising from the left of the picture breaks toward the right, its white foam reaching out like claws. Beneath it, three long, narrow boats carrying men row against the waves, and beyond the trough the wave has made, a small snow-capped Mount Fuji can be seen. The wave is a deep Prussian blue, and the sky a pale grayish tone.

BackgroundUnder the Wave off Kanagawa is the first sheet of the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, which Hokusai made in the early 1830s, at around seventy. Prussian blue pigment, then newly imported from Europe, made such a deep blue possible. As a woodblock print, the same image was printed thousands of times, and in the late 19th century it traveled to Europe, influencing Monet, Van Gogh and even Debussy. Mount Fuji drawn smaller than the wave is a play of viewpoint; the whole series is about where and how Mount Fuji can be seen.

Puzzle tipBecause it is a print, the edges between areas of color are sharp, as if cut with a knife. Join the pieces along the boundary between blue wave and white foam first to build the outline of the wave, and the rest falls into place. The sky pieces are nearly a single color, so fill them into the empty spaces last. The boats and Mount Fuji are reliable reference points.