Japanese colour woodblock print of the Hokusai generation: one carved block per colour, up to twenty, registered by two notches cut in each block, printed on washi by hand. A designer, a carver, a printer and a publisher made every sheet together.
Flat colour inside a thin black key line, no cast shadows, and a hand-wiped gradient at the top of the sky come straight from the process. The deep blue is Prussian blue, imported and fade-resistant, advertised as new in 1831; the Great Wave was among the first prints to use it.
The wave is a bezier with combed blocks, the sky a vertical bokashi gradient. The figure is filled one flat tone per face inside a union key line, and the glasses, brows and smile are drawn in the key colour. A red seal and a vertical title cartouche sit where the publisher put them.