Hokusai’s 'The Great Wave' (and the differences between all 111 of them) | Woodblock Printing

ANSWER THREAD: @Bert V asked (very much summarised) 'block carvers have been (and still are) able to patch worn out bits of a block, some also apply more than one colour to woodblocks. Could this be the case here?' Cappucine's answer: Thanks for your comments! As far as I know, the original keyblock used to print the Great Wave has not survived (the one in the film is a modern replica). So I can’t examine it and see whether it was repaired. You are absolutely right: sometimes, woodblock carvers inserted plugs of wood to modify designs. For instance, they removed the heads of characters in books illustrations and inserted new ones with different hairstyles. Or they replaced a publisher’s name with another one. But this is reuse/revamping, not repair. In my opinion, prints’ keyblocks were generally not repaired in the Edo Period. Prints were so cheap that publishers had little incentive to spend money and have woodblocks repaired. I have gone through high resolution photographs of surviving Edo woodblocks and could not find any evidence of “proper” repair on them. I didn’t have time to explain all my findings in the film, but I observed that other lines in impressions of The Great Wave not just the cartouche gradually disappeared. This is always in the same areas and strongly suggests that a unique keyblock was used for all the impressions of The Great Wave. Regarding the yellow woodblock, the boat on the LHS and the little section of the boat in the foreground are systematically left blank in late impressions of The Great Wave. This indicates that a different woodblock was used. It takes less time to apply ink all over the woodblock, rather than going through the trouble of inking some very specific areas only. If you are interested, all the details of my findings are published in an essay available online: www.latehokusai.org/research-publication/the-makin… I hope you have found this helpful. Many thanks for your interest! Capucine

A couple years ago Dave Bull was the one who firstly got me interested in ukiyo-e. I'm really glad to know his amazing work also helped making history :)

I was blown away with the in-depth way she has studied all of these prints.

Glad to see Dave Bull's work is being recognized. Also glad to see Claude Debussy featured.

This may add to the confusion or even upset the British Museum, but nowhere in this video has been mentioned that block carvers have been (and still are) able to patch worn-out bits of a block with a fresh bit or replace it with for instance a new cartouche. There are known instances of publishers' marks being replaced. This would imply that using the edges of the cartouche to date a print doesn’t apply. I think microscopic inspection of the wood structure should help (and maybe that has been done - but the video does not mention this). Another point: some colour blocks can be used to print different colours, as long as the areas are separated enough to apply ink safely w/o running into each other. The fact that one of the boats lacks the coloration of the others could be a case of the printer skipping that, by design to save time or by chance.. Anyway - it is fascinating how much questions arise from studying this seminal piece of art and how difficult it is to answer them. (My link to The Wave: I used it as inspiration for a record album cover I illustrated and designed in the early 80’s…)

It may be common knowledge but I listened to a Japanese curator explain that the two huddled passengers in each boat are actually rowers taking a rest. The money that would be made by being first into harbour with the catch would be many times the normal rate. The two extra rowers meant that they could maintain maximum speed by continuously rotating the rowers. The impression I received was that these were professionals who had not been caught in a storm, rather they were taking a calculated risk to make a handsome profit. It was a genuine pleasure to listen to this continuing exploration of the prints.

I've got one of David Bull's Great Wave prints framed on my wall

She is right. Looking at it from left to right, it looks like the boats and fishermen are escaping the wave, making their way to the right side, to safety. From right to left, it looks like they're plunging directly into the great wave.

That was a very well presented and interesting production, thank you so much for sharing it. 😊

Wow, absolutely fascinating! Even just the insight into the left-right/right-left reading of the image was eye-opening. I'm very curious to see what the next phase of research into this will bring to light!

One of my favorite pieces…I fell in love with it as a child.

Great video! Dave Bull got me into looking/learning about woodblock prints, so I'm glad to see him in the video. :D

A few years back, one of the Great Wave prints was displayed at the MFA in Boston for a few months at a special exhibit. I was surprised by how small it was and that there were several prints of it as well. I managed to get a pciture of me with it, and there was quite the line for selfies with the Great Wave

What is next? I suggest having all the photos on a computer and lining them all up as layers. Then you can compare differences in the layers by making them opaque and altering the colours between layers. Overlap two and where the colours match exactly it will combine the colour of the layer above with the colour of the layer below. Where they do not match up it will either show the colour of the layer above or the colour of the layer below. This would be a quick way of showing any differences between prints.

I find this fascinating!! Thank you for creating such intriguing content and making the massive amount of work behind exhibitions and objects more visible to the general public.

There was a slight line dent e.g. 0.1 mm and this line was printed with a light, many-strand baren and appeared as a line break on the print. Later another printer with heavier baren made it appear again that the line had never been broken. Alternatively, there was a bit of wax or oil on the block and 100 or 200 prints then appear to have a physical line break. Later the block is washed the missing area prints. Yet another alternative, perhaps a line is chipped, 100 or 200 prints are pulled and then a carver repairs the chip. It’s actually very easy to make a perfect repair that is undetectable in the print. I admire Keyes, the BM, and Marks for attempting an edition chronology however there may never be sufficient information to do so precisely given that all we have is a very small sample size printed over a duration of decades.

This is the first (The) British Museum video where I feel I’m watching an Errol-Morris-level of discussion of image and its ...meaning. I await the next 65 minutes of filmed discussion on this topic. I’m quite serious about this. Thank you.

Academic decathlon has the Great Wave in its curriculum this year, so these little tidbits about it have been quite a treat.

LOVE the scholarship. Thankyou all!

So insightful, Hokusai's work has always fascinated us!