Contributor: Christine M. E. Guth Christine M. E. Guth leads the Asian design and material culture specialism in the Royal College of Art and Victoria and Albert Museum postgraduate design history program.

This book, by one of the most important scholars of Japanese art in the English-speaking world, was enormously helpful in planning the upcoming exhibition [Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence, 26 March–16 July 2023]. It discusses in detail the background of Hokusai’s most famous work—the colour woodblock print Under the Wave off Kanagawa from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji—and traces its resonance around the world right up to the present, with many new insights. --- Christine Guth’s book is a welcome addition to the corpus of books on Japanese art for a mixed readership. . . . the book provides a very valuable look into the dynamics of globalization of a non-Western artwork. --- Hokusai’s Great Wave is surprisingly compact given the far-reaching content that it delivers. It is delightfully illustrated with many large reproductions, almost all in color. . . . Guth demonstrates her uncommon ability to illuminate a complex intercultural phenomenon through an accessibly written yet critical account that is grounded in the study of a single subject. Conceptually sophisticated and theoretically relevant, the book offers a satisfying read for all those in Japanese studies who seek to venture out into the new waters of global cultural studies. --- This book is not the easiest read, but your reviewer found the struggle worthwhile. In particular he welcomed the probing into the continued ‘orientalism’ in Western attitudes, however beneficent they seek to be. --- Through a rigorous analysis of the reproductions and adaptations of Hokusai’s wave in the world, Guth examines the highly complicated process by which Hokusai’s motif crossed national and cultural borders and the boundaries of genres and media to become recognised as a global icon. . . . The book would be of great interest to scholars and students interested in Japanese studies, cultural studies and art history. --- Guth brilliantly examines the mutating social life of Hokusai’s image, from its production in late-Edo Japan to its emergence as a French, Euro-American, and then global signifier of all things Japanese; from its work in Japanese nationalism to its play in circuits of commodity capitalism; from its status as a shorthand for international high art to its popular manifestation as a lifestyle brand (think surfing); and from its early conscription into classical Western aesthetics of the sublime to its increasing association with looming global environmental disaster. --- Dr. Guth is a remarkable writer and researcher. Her many articles and books demonstrate clarity of discussion and depth of understanding; she always brings new ideas and insights to Japanese art history. . . . This book is well worth reading, for Asian art collectors and for students in courses about visual culture and social media. ---

Every so often a publication appears that is both inherently brilliant and destined to change the face of studies in a given field because of the depth of the analysis and the originality of the arguments posed. Such a book is Christine Guth’s detailed, imaginative, and fully original examination of one of Hokusai’s seminal woodblock prints Kanagawa
oki name ura (The Great Wave off Kanagawa). . . . The achievement of this book is that Guth has imaginatively shown a way to use the past to explore the present; art historical research and the new methods that Guth has used make this book a seminal study for all cultural historians now and in the future.