Abstract
Katsushika Hokusai is one of the most famous Japanese painters in the world. “The Great Wave at Kanagawa” is a work from a series of “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” recognized as one of his most important works. This paper is devoted to investigating the composition of “the Great wave at Kanagawa” in the geometrical view point. It is well-known that it seems to be derived from “Oshiokurihatoutuusen-nozu” by comparison with their motifs. We first study the similarity of them using the special method of Hokusai, the so-called “Mitsuwari-hou”, which is described in “Hokusai-manga” written by himself. Moreover it is shown that there exists a golden rectangle in “the Great Wave at Kanagawa” which plays the pivotal role of the composition.
