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The Great Wave off Kanagawa
China · Japan · Korea

Masters of the East

Ink, silk and woodblock — a thousand years of Asian genius, from misty mountains to the great wave.

🔍 How to spot it

Three giveaways that tell you what you're looking at — even for a painting you've never seen. Each detail below is magnified from the work named beside it.
1

Emptiness is the subject. Bare silk and paper read as mist, water and air. The gaps are doing the work.

detail from Travelers Among Mountains and Streams — Fan Kuan
detail of Travelers Among Mountains and Streams ⤢
2

Line before colour. Everything is built from calligraphic brush line; colour is a thin tint, never a filling-in.

detail from The Great Wave off Kanagawa — Katsushika Hokusai
detail of The Great Wave off Kanagawa ⤢
3

Shifting viewpoint. No single vanishing point — you travel through the scene, and humans are deliberately tiny.

detail from Early Spring — Guo Xi
detail of Early Spring ⤢
💡 Empty paper, ink line and a tiny human under a huge mountain — that's the East Asian eye.
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1 · Meet the painters

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2 · Chapter test

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The works

7 paintings in this chapter.

Travelers Among Mountains and Streams
Travelers Among Mountains and Streams
Fan Kuan · c. 1000
Early Spring
Early Spring
Guo Xi · 1072
Along the River During the Qingming Festival
Along the River During the Qingming Festival
Zhang Zeduan · c. 1120
The Great Wave off Kanagawa boss
The Great Wave off Kanagawa
Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1831
Fine Wind, Clear Morning
Fine Wind, Clear Morning
Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1831
Wind God and Thunder God
Wind God and Thunder God
Tawaraya Sōtatsu · c. 1630
Inwangjesaekdo
Inwangjesaekdo
Jeong Seon · 1751