How Brussels recreated Japanese artist Hokusai’s 120-year-old Great Wave image with 700,000 flowers

It took eight months of design work, 16 colours and more than 700,000 flowers to bring Hokusai’s iconic The Great Wave off Kanagawa to life in Brussel

Over the weekend, Brussels’ historic Grand-Place has been turned into a giant floral artwork, with over 700,000 flowers recreating the drama of Japan’s most famous wave. For the 24th edition of the city’s biennial Flower Carpet, Japanese artist Hiro Sugiyama has reimagined Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Spanning around 70 metres by 24 metres, the installation brings a contemporary Japanese touch to the heart of the Belgian capital.

An overview of a giant flower carpet inspired by The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai at the historic Grand Place in Brussels,

To adapt to rising temperatures and climate change-driven heatwaves exceeding 30°C in Europe, organizers of the Brussels Flower Carpet in the historic Grand Place substituted traditional begonias with over 500,000 heat-resistant dahlias originating from the Mexican highlands. With Belgium experiencing high summer temperatures, the heat-resistant flowers were imperative to make sure the festival went on smoothly.

Sugiyama spent eight months developing the design. He initially envisioned a much more colourful composition but had to work with a palette of 16 colours because of time constraints. The finished carpet uses mostly dahlias, alongside begonias, grass and bark. The artist said he was initially nervous about the restricted colour palette, but was won over when he saw the flowers and design come together.