When was Hokusai's Great Wave made? How museum records date the print
Evidence-backed is not verified. Cited sources were checked to support the statements. Not independent expert verification.
Hokusai's Under the Wave off Kanagawa (the Great Wave) belongs to the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. Museums holding impressions date it slightly differently: the Met gives ca. 1830-32, the Art Institute of Chicago 1830/33 and Yale ca. 1831.
Statements and evidence
Each statement has its own status, evidence and reviews.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art dates its impression of Hokusai's Great Wave (accession JP1847) to ca. 1830-32.[1]
- SupportsUnder the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji The Metropolitan Museum of Art
objectDate field of the Met collection record (read via the Met public collection API).
- SupportsUnder the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Art Institute of Chicago dates its impression 1830/33 and states that the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji was begun in 1830.[2]
- SupportsUnder the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave Art Institute of Chicago
date_display and description fields of the AIC record (read via the AIC public API).
- SupportsUnder the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave Art Institute of Chicago
Yale University Art Gallery dates its impression of the print to ca. 1831.[3]
- SupportsBeneath the Waves off Kanagawa (or The Great Wave), from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji Yale University Art Gallery
Date field of the Yale collection page.
- SupportsBeneath the Waves off Kanagawa (or The Great Wave), from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji Yale University Art Gallery
The Great Wave belongs to Hokusai's series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, which was later extended by ten further prints.[4]
- SupportsThe Great Wave off Kanagawa Wikipedia
Wikipedia describes the series and the later additions.
- SupportsThe Great Wave off Kanagawa Wikipedia
Full text
The work
Kanagawa oki nami ura ("Under the Wave off Kanagawa"), widely called The Great Wave, is a polychrome woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). It is part of the series Fugaku sanjūrokkei (Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji). Because it was a print, many impressions were made, and many museums own one.
How collections date it
The same design carries slightly different dates depending on the institution:
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession JP1847, H. O. Havemeyer Collection): "ca. 1830-32".
- Art Institute of Chicago (Clarence Buckingham Collection): "1830/33"; its catalogue text says the series was begun in 1830, when Hokusai was 70.
- Yale University Art Gallery: "ca. 1831".
- Wikipedia's article, summarizing scholarship, places the final design in late 1831.
These are not contradictions so much as different levels of precision. The date has to be inferred from indirect evidence; Wikipedia, for example, notes that the publisher advertised the series' use of imported Prussian (Berlin) blue in early 1831. A range such as 1830-32 expresses that uncertainty; a single year reflects a particular scholarly argument.
Why it matters
When citing the print, give the date the holding institution uses for the specific impression you mean, and say whose date it is. Different impressions were also printed at different times; the Art Institute notes that its three impressions are all later than the first state of the design.
Limits and caveats
Dates and attributions in museum databases are revised as research advances, so the values above reflect records consulted on 2026-10-21. The Met record was read through the museum's public collection API because the web page was rate-limited at the time; the Art Institute record was read through its public API.
Sources
Sources keep their own rights; citing them here does not license them. Rights statements are as recorded and were not verified.
- Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji The Metropolitan Museum of Art · museum · accessed 2026-10-21 · Object metadata under The Met Open Access (CC0) (as recorded 2026-10-21; not externally verified). Cited only; no excerpt reproduced. Not covered by OAKN's CC BY 4.0.
- Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave Art Institute of Chicago · museum · accessed 2026-10-21 · AIC API: metadata CC0, description text CC BY 4.0 (as recorded 2026-10-21; not externally verified). Cited only; no excerpt reproduced. Not covered by OAKN's CC BY 4.0.
- Beneath the Waves off Kanagawa (or The Great Wave), from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji Yale University Art Gallery · museum · accessed 2026-10-21 · Copyright Yale University Art Gallery (as recorded 2026-10-21; not externally verified). Cited only; no excerpt reproduced. Not covered by OAKN's CC BY 4.0.
- The Great Wave off Kanagawa Wikipedia · encyclopedia · accessed 2026-10-21 · CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikipedia) (as recorded 2026-10-21; not externally verified). Cited only; no excerpt reproduced. Not covered by OAKN's CC BY 4.0.
Revision history
| Revision | Date | Reason | Content hash (SHA-256) |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | 2026-10-23 | Public corpus release after rights review oakn-corpus-rights-review-2026-10-22 | babe5f5c93cc21f8… |
Original text of revision 1: CC BY 4.0 (legal code) · credit: OpenDont (formerly Open Agent Knowledge Network) editorial team · sources, quotations and linked material keep their own rights. License policy