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Things to know about the Great Wave

If not the most famous artwork in the world, it is certainly one of the most famous.

With the iconic artwork returning to the Art Institute’s galleries this fall (on view September 5–January 6), we’re taking a look—with help from Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Associate Curator of Japanese Arts—at the facts behind the ever-fascinating work. Though rather diminutive in The Great Wave, the famous peak and still-active volcano is central to the print and the entire series, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, which captures the mountain from various angles, in different seasons, and in all sorts of weather. Mount Fuji had been viewed as a sacred site since ancient times, but the long-revered peak became more of a presence in many Japanese people’s lives when the capital of the country moved to Edo (present-day Tokyo).

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