Among the Japanese, Hokusai is not alone in revering Mt. Fuji, Japan's largest and most well-known peak. This reverence has even extended into the realm of worship, as Mt. Fuji is often considered sacred. Furthermore, in a less widespread belief, Mt. Fuji holds the key to immortality, a belief which can be attributed to the ninth-century, 'The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,' where a goddess supposedly deposits such a potion on the peak (Smith 10). As Henry Smith expounds, "Thus from an early time, Mt. Fuji was seen as the source of the secret of immortality, a tradition that was at the heart of Hokusai's own obsession with the mountain" (Smith 11).

Mt. Fuji prominently appears in the Great Wave ostensibly because the print is part of the series "Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji." In addition to this series, Hokusai also drew "One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji."