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Frame from The Great Wave - Part 1 Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

The Great Wave - Part 1

David Bull
Documentaries
YouTube
4 HN users recommended this documentary4 months2020–2026 score 5.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN commenters hold it up as a top-tier long-form process video, recommended whenever the Great Wave or Hokusai comes up.

The first part of a long series documenting Dave Bull's Tokyo woodblock workshop as it produces a reproduction of Hokusai's The Great Wave. It follows the carving, proofing and printing of the reward print for Kickstarter backers.

“The series is up there with Clickspring's skeleton clock in my pantheon of "greatest long-form process videos” (HN, 2026)

3 strong recommendations · 1 recommendations · Documentaries

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@MengerSponge Feb 2026 Strongly recommends
on HN thread The Rediscovery of 103 Hokusai Lost Sketches (2021)
I bought one of his prints of The Great Wave off Kanagawa. It's stunning. The series is up there with Clickspring's skeleton clock in my pantheon of "greatest long-form process videos" [this video]
Ranks among the greatest long-form process videos.
@Cerium Apr 2021 Recommends
on HN thread The 'Great Wave' has mystified art lovers for generations (2019)
You may find David Bull's youtube content interesting. He is a Japanese woodblock printer living in Asakusa, Tokyo, where he runs a print shop. In 2015 he did a reproduction of the Great Wave and documented the progress online: [this video]
Printer David Bull documents his 2015 reproduction of the Great Wave.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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