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The Great Wave off Kanagawa is probably the most famous Japanese work of art. Created by Hokusai, it is not a painting, but a woodblock print. That means that more people are involved in creating the work. First, the artist (in this case Hokusai) creates a design, then a carver creates a number of wooden blocks (one for each colour), destroying the design while doing that, and finally, printers print the design on a paper. This way, there can be as many as five thousand copies of the work. That’s why The Great Wave can be seen in New York, London, Japan, or Brussels.

Compared to the huge wave, representing the power and greatness of nature, the people in the picture are barely noticeable. Each boat has, in fact, ten people on it. Seeing how small they are helps us imagine the size of the wave.

In the background of the print is Mount Fuji, an active volcano which is a Japanese national symbol and an inspiration for many artworks.

We live in a village called Shipley. Our house is not very big. It has four rooms, a kitchen, and two bathrooms. The house is big enough for us: me, my mum Martha, my dad Jake and my sister Sarah. My brother Michael lives on his own now.

There are two small rooms–one is my room and the other is my sister’s. The biggest room in the house is our living room. My parents spend most of the time there. It has a very comfortable couch and a big television. Sometimes we play board games there.

Our kitchen is small, but my mum doesn’t spend much time there, because we eat our lunches at school. That is why it is always very clean.

One of the bathrooms, the smaller one, is used by my sister and me. Our parents use the other one.

Our house is not very special, but I think it is really comfortable and that’s what is important.

Nápověda: tower = věž, brick = kostka