Video reveals ukiyo-e technique behind Hokusai's Great Wave

A short film titled 'Tewaza / Edo Mokuhanga' produced by Tokyo's Aoyoma Square studio and directed by Hiromitsu Amano demonstrates the step-by-step process of creating ukiyo-e woodblock prints. The video focuses on Katsushika Hokusai's 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa' (c. 1830), one of the most famous ukiyo-e works. It shows the transfer of a drawing onto a wooden block, carving, and final inking and pressing stages. Ukiyo-e, a Japanese paper printing genre popular from the 17th to 19th centuries, influenced early 20th-century European painters and continues to attract attention, as seen in recent exhibitions at the Scuderie del Castello Visconteo in Pavia (2019) and the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna.