The Great Wave off Kanagawa

The Great Wave off Kanagawa (神奈川沖浪裏, Kanagawa Oki Nami Ura, "In the well of a wave off Kanagawa"), 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^[1] in the late Edo period as the first print in Hokusai's series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (富嶽三十六景, Fugaku sanjūrokkei^?). 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 or okinami ("wave of the open sea").^[2] 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.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The Great Wave off Kanagawa