The Great Wave - Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

There are days when you're looking for something and you can't find it. And there are days when you just lift your head, and it's there. Our day in the Victoria&Albert museum in London was one of the latter.

I had seen on their website that their exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints was ending on the day we arrived in London. So it was the first place we went to after we checked in to our hotel.



There were plenty of prints, a few very good ones. We had spent a bit of time in the 2nd room, looking at fans, and preliminary drawings, when I lifted my head and there it was, right in front of my eyes - Hokusai's Great Wave at Kanagawa. I had been to the Metropolitan Museum in New York twice in search for it, always to be disappointed as it was away on tour somewhere. I didn't expect to see it here in the V&A, so it felt even better to finally be face to face with it. Of course, it's so familiar that there was no major surprise. And it is small, but it is so gorgeous all the same. It's quite abstract, and the shades of blue are still perfect.

There were 2 other views of Mount Fuji beside it, both very modern and yet so old.

It made my day!