The Great Wave off Kanagawa: Finding Philosophical Meaning through a Painting
<p>A painting with Mount Fuji as a background and small boats defying vicious blue waves off Kanagawa is how I describe Hokusai’s famous work, “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”. This painting evokes something deep within myself. First, I see it as a representation of the insignificance of human life. Second, I see it as an illiterate meaning on how humans struggle and fight for everyday life against all its odds.</p>
<p>The three small boats filled with some fishermen look insignificant if compared with the enormous wave off Kanagawa. The boats with fishermen illustrate how small we are in this vast universe. It reminds us of our place and the harsh reality of life, that we are insignificant. How nature has almost complete control of our lives and how we sometimes unable to get free from it. It reminds us of our position in this universe.</p>
<p>I always feel small whenever I look at this painting which I put on my bedroom walls. When there’s something that bothers me, I look closely at this painting, set my eyes in the scene of the small boats filled with fishermen in contrast with giant waves. At that moment, I practice what stoicism also teaches, “The View From Above”. It is when you start to visualize your existence from your house, up to your city, up again to your country, then zoom out again until you get an image of the Earth planet, go further up more until the solar system, the milky way, and last, this very vast universe. With that visualization in mind, I am feeling smaller and smaller, hence I feel at peace in knowing that I am just a tiny fraction of the great cosmos, that no matter how big my problem is, it can’t definitely be compared with the size of this universe.</p>
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