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A look at how Japan views the seaand itself 日本之自身观 海洋观解读 AT AROUND the age of 70, Katsushika Hokusai, still bounding with artistic energy, createdThirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, a series of ukiyo-e, or woodblock prints. His most famous,since reproduced on everything from Tintin books to tea cups, is Beneath the Wave offKanagawa, painted around 1830. 葛饰北斋70岁上下之时，艺术细胞仍然丝毫未减，创作了《富士三十六景》系列浮世绘。而他最有名的作品莫过于1830年左右创作的《巨浪下的神户川》了，从丁丁书到茶杯上都可见这部巨作的影子。 Most Westerners, when viewing it, focus on the wave itself, which towers over Mount Fuji in ashow of almost implacable force, all the more terrifying considering the three fragile boatsunder it. Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, wrote in A History of the World in100 Objects that the picture reflected frightened fishermen and an insecure, cloisteredJapan about to be forced by American gunboats into the modern world. But Japanese art criticsdifferand they have a point. In the picture the boatmen look more serene than fearful, astheir vessels slice through the waves. Their stillness in the face of danger is all the morepoignant in Japan, as they have a job to do. They are racing to deliver fresh fish to market,and yet they remain, as far as many Japanese see it, in delicate balance with nature. | 
