The Bösendorfer Collector's Item Grand Piano The Great Wave off Kanagawa
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UNVEILING OF A MASTERPIECE - When Japanese Art Meets Austrian Craftsmanship
Vienna, March 13, 2025: the legendary Austrian piano manufacturer Bösendorfer presents its latest collector's item: THE GREAT WAVE off KANAGAWA. A grand piano dedicated to the world-famous image by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. The Disklavier System grand piano, built especially for the EXPO in Japan, will be on display in the Austrian pavilion from April 2025, where it will be accessible to the general public. The Collector's Item Edition itself is limited to 16 grand pianos worldwide. THE GREAT WAVE off KANAGAWA makes pianists and music lovers all over the world sit up and take notice - and makes this special Bösendorfer grand piano a coveted rarity and treasure for collectors and art lovers.
From Hokusai's series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, The Great Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa-oki Nami Ura) is arguably the most famous Japanese artwork. Commonly known as The Great Wave, it inspired a whole generation of painters such as Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Camille Claudel and Gustav Klimt, as well as writers and composers such as Giacomo Puccini with his opera Madame Butterfly or Claude Debussy with his score La Mer.
Various copies of the original print can be found in collections around the world, including the Tokyo National Museum, the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The Great Wave is ubiquitous, adorning innumerable products. In Japan itself it appears on both the Japanese passport and the 1000 yen banknote. It even exists as an emoji, sealing its cult status as a piece of popular art.
The first grand piano at the Japanese imperial court – a Bösendorfer
After the opening of Japan to the West in the middle of the 19th century, a Bösendorfer grand piano traveled from Austria to Japan, reaching the Japanese imperial court in 1869. Bösendorfer had already been suppliers of the pianoforte to the Austrian imperial court by royal appointment since 1839. This Bösendorfer grand piano was among the precious gifts sent by Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I to the Japanese Emperor Meiji. It was the first such instrument to arrive at the Japanese court, and hence the first time in his life that the Tenno heard the sound of a grand piano. This magical encounter would spark Japan's interest in Western music, and marked the beginning of an intense cultural exchange between Japan and Austria – one which has continued to this day.
A Master of “Pictures of the Floating World”
Katsushika Hokusai's genius is evident in his sophisticated technique, his mastery of composition and understanding of the natural world. His work The Great Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura) was the culmination of his 30-year-long preoccupation with the theme of the wave. The drama of the scene with its thrilling composition and elegant stylisation is unsurpassed. In this work of art, Hokusai blends tradition and innovation, combining the age-old Japanese woodblock printing technique with Prussian blue, a pigment imported from Germany and scarcely available in Japan at the time. With its remarkable intensity of colour, this new fade-resistant blue significantly enhances the dramatic effect of the waves.
Hokusai learnt the craft of woodcutting in his youth. As paintings were practically unaffordable in Japan, the printing technique of the woodcut offered an affordable alternative, enabling the so-called Pictures of the Floating World (ukiyo-e) to achieve unparalleled distribution and popularity. Pursuing his great passion for painting, Hokusai studied under various masters, familiarised himself with Dutch landscape painting and acquired an extraordinary knowledge of European central and linear perspective. With his astute observations and affectionate nod to everyday lives, Hokusai depicted almost the entire range of life in Japan over the course of his career. Today, he is considered one of the most important cultural mediators between Japan and the Western world. Hokusai created around 30,000 works of art and his sketches are regarded as the forerunners of today's manga, the Japanese comics.
CREDITS TO BE USED WHEN PUBLISHING
Video by L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH
Music: Frantisek Janoska / Sakura Sakura (oder A Bridge of Peace)
Animation: Fritz Dorfner / Mag. Paul Szimak
Image Source: @alphacoders robokoboto