세상에서 가장 유명한 파도

The sharp claws of waves. A ship caught in a huge wave beneath it and people hanging to survive. Beyond that, the small but firmly standing Mount Fuji. Like a huge roar of waves in the ear, the picture looks very real. This is "The Great Wave" [The Secret of a Famous Painting] by a Japanese artist Hokusai. This work gives a strong impression to people as much as the strong waves. The unique color and powerful description are strongly imprinted in the viewers' impressions. You can actually see this work in so many places. From clothes, emojis to beer. The intensity of the wave is embroidered, and it contains freshness and strength. It is loved by many people to this day, as it is a representative painting of Japan. This work also gave great inspiration to artists. Claude Monet, also known as the founder of impressionism, and Vincent van Gogh, the representative painter of impressionism also owned this painting. In particular, Gogh was extremely into the waves of Hokusai. In a letter to his brother Theo, he mentioned his appreciation of Hokusai's painting. These waves are claws The boat is caught in them I can feel it. This painting is actually a woodblock print, not a brush painting. It's a print that is printed with ink on a wooden frame. This everyday print of Japan is called "Ukiyo-e". Once the frame is made, you can print it out continuously, so these prints were very cheap. In the 1700s, Ukiyo-e was usually available for a bowl of udon in Japan. At that time, it was not considered as fine art in Japan. The term "Ukiyo-e" means [Floating - Wander from place to place without deciding where to go] "Pictures of the Floating World". It means to live a short life with excitement. Thus, the work of Ukiyo-e contains positive reviews of the current world and the customs. The daily pleasures of ordinary people are contained in the work. Ukiyo-e, which was not treated as a fine culture, began to be popular among the Japanese, as it deals with brush paintings, distinctive lines, bright colors, and common people's interest. Hokusai, who drew this picture, [Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)] was born at the time when this style of painting was popular in Japan. Hokusai liked to draw pictures since he was young. One day, he encountered Ukiyo-e as he became an assistant to an engraver who recognized his skills. Hokusai, who was recognized for his ability for his excellent observation skills, [Katsukawa Shunsho's painting] became a student of Katsukawa Shunsho, the best Ukiyo-e painter of the time, when he turned 19. This painting, known as Hokusai's debut work, has a similar aspect compared to his teacher's painting style. And from this time on, you can discover the early forms of waves drawn by young Hokusai. The wave that changes its forms differently every moment had been a great interest to Hokusai since childhood. Hokusai respected his teacher. So he tried to capture his teacher's style in his style. However, Hokusai also had a desire to paint differently from others. This painting is known as the first painting that Hokusai drew for money. Hokusai, who was finishing the portrait of the child as requested, drew this, improvising. This red thing watching the child right behind the pillar. It is "Shoki", God who catches demons and prevents bad luck. It was an attempt to break away from his teacher's teaching and add a drop of his own style. Very satisfied with Hokusai's sense, the client paid a generous price for the painting, and Hokusai began to gain confidence in his paintings. Soon, however, Hokusai was expelled by his teacher. He was hated because he mixed his teacher's painting style with various painting styles. Eventually, he abandoned his old name, and began to develop his own style of painting. After that, he kept changing his name whenever he created a new style of painting. There are more than 30 confirmed names so far. Hokusai constantly looked for a new stimuli rather than being tied up in one place. He never stopped working. Especially, he gained his fame as he met Bakin, [Kyokutei Bakin] the most popular Japanese novelist at that time. Born as the son of a samurai, he wrote dozens of novels about exciting battle stories of Chinese and Japanese warriors. When Hokusai's illustrations, which seemed to be about to come out of the page, and Bakin's military arts stories met, the book began to be sold well. It was Hokusai's persistent observation that allowed him to draw such a lively painting. He had painted animals, plants, people's lives or tools, everything in his sight since he was very young. That's why even though it's drawn with lines on the plain, they were able to capture the instantaneous movement. As his paintings became popular, he published a book that collected only his sketches. This is the Hokusai Manga. It has 15 volumes, and there are more than 4,000 paintings in it. In fact, the origin of Japanese Manga is sometimes found in the Hokusai Manga. It's because Hokusai's technique of studying various facial expressions and actually drawing invisible nose breaths or using exaggerated expressions is very similar to the Manga today. He painted continuously until he was 70 years old. However, as Hokusai's wife died, and his health worsened, he put down his brush for the first time in his life. Due to his grandson's huge gambling debt, the old Hokusai was put on the streets in an instant, without having time to enjoy his retirement. In the meantime, he came up with an ambitious project to clear his grandson's gambling debt. He decided to make "36 Views of Mount Fuji", which contains 36 scenic views of Mount Fuji. It was a time of tourism boom in Japan in the early 19th century. Since the international travel was closed, going to sacred places as a pilgrim was popular in Japan. Among them, Mount Fuji was a must-go place. Although it's a fearful active volcano that might explode at anytime, it's very important since the snow on Mount Fuji melts in spring and supplies water to residents. Because of this, Mount Fuji has been considered a sacred place for many years. Hokusai knew this and tried to make and sell commemorative posters to those who traveled and admired this mountain. And to differentiate himself from his competitors, he captured not only the appearance of Mount Fuji, but also the everyday life of common people in it. In some paintings, workers look more like the main characters than Mount Fuji. If viewed in the same context as the paintings, the main character of this painting might not be the wave. In fact, the presumed background for this painting is above the sea near Tokyo Bay. Here, huge waves like Hokusai's paintings are often seen. A special type of ship was created to sail the waves. It is this ship in Hokusai's painting. This ship was not only a fishing vessel, but also a cargo ship carrying goods on the sea. As you can see in the picture, the people on this boat are not fishing. It is also worth noting that eight people were on this boat, which was mainly for four people. When you think about it like this, these sailors were trying to move things on board as quickly as possible. So what was the object that needed to be moved quickly so important to get through this huge wave? If you look at the amount of snow on Mount Fuji, the season in the picture is spring when the snow has just started to melt. In Japan, it is said that the first tuna caught in the new year is considered very valuable. This is a tradition that continues to this day, and the highest bid price for a new year's first tuna traded in 2019 reached 3.4 billion won. So fishermen would have been in a hurry to take the first harvest of the year to the auction house. So this huge wave wasn't a problem for them. After thinking about this, the main characters of the painting are the workers, not the wave. Those who seemed to be on the verge of death suddenly look even more brave and courageous. Did Hokusai predict that this painting would be the most noticeable of the 36 views? Three boats can be seen beneath this huge wave. And it looks like part of the waves in the distance, but there's also Mount Fuji. When this painting was first introduced to the West, it was interpreted as a form of ruthless nature. Like the climax scene in a disaster movie, humans are weak beings that easily break under their fierce force. However, this picture is interpreted in a completely different way by Japanese people. The fishermen in the picture are not begging for their lives from the raging waves because they are busy trying to save themselves. They're ready to lie low and fight these waves together. When viewed from the perspective of the fishermen on the boat, not from the perspective of the waves, this painting symbolizes human courage and persistence. In the 1830s, when Hokusai published his wave works, it was a time when Japan enforced a strong isolation policy. There was only one port in Japan that foreigners could enter, that was Nagasaki. Dutch merchants mainly came and went here. European drawing styles began to spread among Japanese painters through Dutch merchants. Hokusai was one of them. Hokusai was especially inspired by the waves during this period and began to draw a series of waves. Western techniques are also shown in these works. Along with perspective, you can find the borders of the paintings like a Western painting frame. There is another reason why this work could stand out. This is because of this unique blue material used to express the color of the sea. The name of this material is Prussian blue. It's the first synthetic pigment made by human, an artificial material invented in Prussia in 1704. This intense blue color from the West proves the influence of Western paintings in Hokusai's work. The effect is also evident in the three-dimensional structure in which perspective was applied. Soon after Hokusai died at the age of 90, the Japanese water gate opened. And Japanese culture quickly flew into Western society. Among them, [Meiji Restoration] Ukiyo-e was very popular. For a long time, in the European art world, it had been thought that drawing closest to the reality was the most important. [First commercial camera] However, the invention of the camera left painters nowhere to go. To those people, Ukiyo-e from the East was shocking. A painting drawn by a painter as he wanted. A picture that seemed far from the reality, but full of personality. In particular, Ukiyo-e's works completely apart from reality brought a new shock to Western artists. European artists were eager to get Ukiyo-e's work, And they proudly painted them in their works. They even copied this drawing style. The craze of Japanese art that hit Europe was called Japonism. Hokusai's work was no exception. Vincent van Gogh and many other artists fell into his works, which led to the creation of another style. It was impressionism. The world they wanted to express through art no longer had to be near-realistic. What was important to them was the 'impression' reinterpreted with the artist's gaze, and Hokusai was at the center of the movement. However, Hokusai's paintings were neither authentic Ukiyo-e nor authentic Japanese paintings. 'The Great' was the result of interpreting Eastern and Western elements into their own artistic language. Hokusai's waves that struck the Western art world, along with other Ukiyo-e's paintings, led a new trend in the history of the painting world. The waves that hit the art world once are still loved and inspire many people. What do you guys feel under these waves? [The reason of Art]