It’s one of my favourite paintings, and it’s become one of the most recognisable images in the world: frozen, foaming, iconic. But The Great Wave wasn’t just about the sea. It was a quiet revolution.
When Hokusai created this woodblock print, Japan was still largely closed to the outside world. But this wave, this massive, un-ignorable force, was a signal. The moment was coming. Within a few decades, isolation would give way to opening, to encounter, to change.
There’s something powerful about the fishermen: tiny, fragile, ducking beneath it. But still rowing. Not fleeing. They are not crushed. They carry on.
Maybe today you are facing your own wave. Keep your head up, keep rowing. And look for the change that’s coming. Maybe it’s not just a wave. It’s a turning point.
