Scottish Opera Rides Hokusai's Great Wave in a Stunning New Show

The famous Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai has inspired a new opera by Scottish Opera. Hokusai is known for creating over 30,000 works of art during his long life, which lasted almost ninety years. One of his most well-known pieces is The Great Wave off Kanagawa, a striking image of a huge blue wave with a mountain in the background. This artwork has become famous all over the world and has appeared on everything from T-shirts to cartoons. The new opera, called The Great Wave, was created by Japanese composer Dai Fujikura and Scottish librettist Harry Ross. The two artists had already worked together on three other operas before starting this project.

In 2017, Dai and his family visited an exhibition of Hokusai's work in London. Dai admitted that he did not know much about Hokusai before, except for the famous wave picture. After seeing the exhibition, Dai's wife suggested that he should write an opera about Hokusai's life. Harry Ross agreed, and they began researching Hokusai's story. Harry spoke with academics in Tokyo who had translated a biography of Hokusai that had not been available in English before. Through this research, Harry discovered that Hokusai had a fascinating and eventful life. Hokusai was born in 1760 in Japan and started painting when he was just six years old. He became famous for his wood block prints, but he also worked in other styles, including a book of sketches called Manga. This book made Hokusai very popular during his lifetime. It included drawings of many things, such as a camel, which Hokusai had never seen. He asked someone to describe a camel and then drew it accurately.

Hokusai was always experimenting with new ideas and materials. When he created The Great Wave off Kanagawa, he used a new color called Prussian Blue, which helped make the picture so special. The Scottish Opera team wanted to bring Hokusai's creativity to the stage. They made exact copies of objects from his sketches and used them in the opera. The team also took inspiration from a Japanese restaurant in New York, where everything is outlined in black. They used this idea for the stage design. The connection between Scottish and Japanese art goes back more than a hundred years. Scottish artists like The Glasgow Boys and Charles Rennie Mackintosh were interested in Japanese art, and art dealer Alexander Reid brought Japanese woodblocks to Scotland. At a famous party in 1889, a Scottish painter even dressed up as Hokusai.

Even though Hokusai created thousands of artworks, he struggled to make a living. He often wrote letters to his publishers, asking for money to support his work and the people in his workshop. Hokusai did not want money just to be rich; he wanted it to keep making art. His most famous work, The Great Wave, was not shown in Europe until 18 years after he died, but it influenced many French artists. Today, Hokusai's art appears on many everyday items, like bank notes and emojis. In the last ten years, there has been a new interest in Japanese culture and Hokusai, especially after a TV show about his life in 2020. Composer Dai Fujikura says that Hokusai is more popular than ever, and the timing for the new opera is perfect. The Great Wave opera will be performed in Glasgow and Edinburgh in February.