jumpei mitsui sculpts hokusai's great wave off kanagawa in LEGO blocks

jumpei mitsui, japan’s only certified professional LEGO builder and the youngest one worldwide, has rendered in building blocks one of japan’s most iconic images — the great wave off kanagawa by hokusai. the piece, which took him 400 hours to build, features 50,000 plastic pieces that form the famous wave imprinted on a woodblock.

images by jumpei mitsui

mitsui first introduced the massive piece on twitter where he stated that to create it, he only drew one sketch and from there, instead of checking the blueprint, he would be paying more attention to balance itself. ‘I also read several papers on rogue waves to check their consistency, and watched and observed the waves on YouTube for 4 hours,’ he comments. ‘when I was a kid, I lived in a house with sea views, so of course I see a lot of real waves.’

the LEGO great wave off kanagawa is currently on view at the hankyu brick museum in osaka — a space dedicated to displaying jumpei mitsui’s work. for the rest of us who can’t physically visit, make sure you check mitsui’s YouTube channel where he uploads all of his creations.

project info:

name:  the great wave of kanagawa made with LEGO

artist: jumpei mitsui