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The story
The phrase “blue tsunami,” used to describe the Democratic Party’s landslide win in the US midterm elections, has caught on widely, and the US newspaper the New York Post put Katsushika Hokusai’s ukiyo-e print “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” on its front page. In response, the New York Times’ Tokyo bureau chief reported that some Japanese people have complicated feelings about the word “tsunami,” and a staff member at the Sumida Hokusai Museum reportedly commented, “I don’t think it’s appropriate.” On 5ch, commenters pointed out that the image actually depicts a large wave rather than a tsunami, explained the wordplay chain from “blue wave” to Hokusai’s painting, and raised the differing copyright practices between the US and Japan — with opinions split on whether such sensitivity is even warranted.
Fri, 11/6, 4:00 PM
Calling the Democratic Party’s landslide win in the US midterm elections a “blue tsunami” seems to be catching on both inside and outside the US. But in Japan, many people have complicated feelings about the word “tsunami.” The New York Times’ Tokyo bureau chief is reporting the varied reactions of Japanese people to the rest of the world.
The Japanese masterpiece, affectionately known as “The Great Wave,” has long been highly regarded as a work that brought fresh energy to culture.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
That's a storm surge, not a tsunami.
No Japanese person actually feels averse to "The Great Wave off Kanagawa."
Unlike in Japan, in America the law says that as long as the creator doesn't explicitly say "NO!", you can use copyrighted work pretty freely — that's the tricky part.
If some candidate in Japan copied this US election gimmick, you'd end up with some idiot candidate violating both election law and copyright law at once.
The Democratic Party's color is blue
→ their big surge got called a "blue wave"
→ which then got linked to Hokusai's painting and the Japanese word "tsunami." That's the chain.
But I think putting too many restrictions on the word "tsunami" itself is going overboard — they're not even talking about Japanese people.
Then again, I also find it annoying when people demand excessive consideration for Black people or Muslims, so…
and from there it flowed into tsunami and Hokusai — it's basically just wordplay.
That's not a tsunami, is it.
but none of them seem to be getting recognized worldwide at all.
Not the New York Times, not the Washington Post —
since when is the New York Post some top-tier paper?
a satirical illustration based on "The Great Wave" got used that time too,
and Japan's old Democratic Party made some clueless fuss about it and got laughed at.
Even if they stop saying "blue tsunami,"
it's not like that's going to stop tsunamis from happening.
That's not really the issue either.
What bugs me is that it's framed as if Japan is attacking Trump or America.
No idea what kind of staff member this is, but did the "New York Times Tokyo bureau chief" just take this one person's opinion at face value as "the representative opinion of Japanese people"?
This so-called Tokyo bureau chief probably didn't actually survey "various reactions from Japanese people" either — isn't he just writing down whatever one random Japanese person said and calling it a day?
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Strictly speaking, the Hokusai image used by the US newspaper is “The Great Wave off Kanagawa,” a depiction of a large wave — not a tsunami. Commenters on the thread made the same point (“that’s a storm surge,” “it’s not a tsunami painting”), making this the first source of confusion. The thread also notes that the phrase “blue wave” was already in use in US politics beforehand, and that its link to Hokusai’s painting came through wordplay — “blue equals the Democratic Party’s color” — rather than any direct connection to tsunamis. Opinions on the thread split over three points: (1) whether sensitivity around the word “tsunami” is even necessary (one side argues “the concept of kotodama doesn’t exist overseas,” the other that “the term isn’t aimed at Japanese people”); (2) the difference in copyright practice between Japan and the US (in Japan it depends on the creator’s wishes, while in the US such use is comparatively unrestricted); and (3) how accurately the article’s portrayal of “Japanese reactions” reflects reality. On point (3) especially, skepticism emerged that one anonymous museum staffer’s personal remark was being broadcast overseas as representing “the complicated feelings of Japanese people” — a reminder not to simply take the original article’s framing at face value.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “US Newspaper’s Front-Page Use of Hokusai’s Famous Painting Draws Museum Complaint of “I Don’t Think It’s Appropriate” — The Complicated Feelings Japanese People Have Toward “Blue Tsunami”.”
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