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“In 1799 he [Kōkan] wrote Seiyō-gadan (Dissertation on Western Painting) in
which he explained fundamental principles of [Western] realism.” 23 Kōkan
had gained access to a limited amount of European art that had filtered into
Japan via the Dutch East India Company through the port of Nagasaki, the
only gap in Japan’s defenses before 1853. His hybrid style of art, which
combined traditional Japanese subject matter with Western notions of space
and shading, was subsequently studied by some of the great Japanese artists
of the period, including Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849). In fact
Hokusai’s absolute masterpiece, and perhaps the most iconic historical work
by any Japanese artist, The Great Wave, followed many examples of beach
* 24
landscapes by Kōkan also featuring unusual tidal waves (Fig. 36).
Image removed according to copyright law
Figure 36: Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave off Kanagawa
(From the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series, c. 1830s)
* The presenters of the BBC Worldwide documentary, The Great Wave, Hokusai (2007), suggest that
this woodblock print likely depicts an historical tsunami.
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