Prints of Hokusai’s ‘A Great Wave’ Head to Auction in September Amid a Hot Market for the Work

Two prints of Katsushika Hokusai‘s iconic woodblock print will be auctioned by Bonhams and Christie’s during Asia Week New York‘s autumn edition for 2024.

The sales are notable because interest in prints of Kanagawa-oki nami-ura (Under the Wave off Kanagawa), commonly referred to as The Great Wave, are among the few bright spots in an otherwise down auction market. It has also been five years since Bonhams sold one.

“The market for the Hokusai ‘Great Wave’ print is very, very good right now,” Takaaki Murakami, Christie’s head of Japanese and Korean Art, told ARTnews. “We have lots of people who want to buy ‘Great Wave’ in the market.”

By comparison, data from Artnet‘s price database shows 11 out of 24 auction sales for prints of The Great Wave since 2019 have taken place at Christie’s New York, many of them hammering well above high estimates. This includes a record-breaking sale last March when a print sold for $2.8 million to an anonymous telephone bidder on an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000.

“Each time, we have lots of new clients come to auction and ask about ‘Great Wave‘,” Murakami said. “They might be not new to Christie’s, but those clients are new to a Japanese art auction. We don’t really have this kind of situation happen with other Japanese art we are selling.”

‘The Great Wave’ is also by far the most recognizable print from Hokusai’s famous series, Fugaku sanjūrokkei (36 Views of Mount Fuji), and is among the most famous art images in the world. It depicts Tokyo-bound boaters confronting a tsunami, with Mount Fuji visible in the background. The artwork is frequently licensed on merchandise, has become a popular LEGO set, and its influence was the center of a major exhibition at MFA Boston last year which also traveled to the Seattle Art Museum.

Experts told ARTnews the best examples of ‘Great Wave‘ prints are characterized by sharp lines from early use of the woodblock, a subtle, low-hanging cloud outlined against a pink sky as well as great condition, including limited exposure to light and moisture.

Christie’s print comes from a private Japanese collector with an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000, a range purposely set by the auction house to attract potential buyers and garner more bids. “We have lots of new clients who are looking for Great Wave prints in the market right now,” Murakami said. “We don’t want to make it too aggressive.”

A press release from Bonhams called its example “an outstanding print of the globally celebrated image”, with an estimate of $700,000 to $900,000.

According to Jeff Olson, director of Japanese Art at Bonhams, New York, this particular print is an early impression of the image, without the flaws found in other prints due to cracks in the woodblocks used to create the lines of the ocean current in the lower right area of the image.

“The color of the print is good with little fading. And most importantly, the print is innocent. There are no signs of in-painting, which occurs in a lot in examples of the Great Wave,” Olson said in a written statement to ARTnews.

The print has also never been shown in public. Olsen said the consignor is a private collector who spends time between Hawai’i, Japan, and Brazil and chose this moment to sell after deciding to refocus his collection.

Olson said Bonhams’ estimate was based on interest from collectors of important works who normally collect in the modern and contemporary field that are are now seeking good examples of The Great Wave.

“An example in good condition with no in-painting, with a good look, and is fresh to the market can typically sell for between $500,000 and $1.5 million,” Olsen said, noting that when the auction house last sold a print in September 2019, that example was “not as early or as innocent as this one.”

In addition to The Great Wave, Bonham’s sale of Japanese prints and watercolors from the private collector on September 18 features other prints by Hokusai, including one from the series Sanka haku-u (White Rain Below the Mountain), estimated at US$100,000 to $150,000; as well as the complete series of prints entitled Shokoku taki meguri (A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces), estimated at US$450,000 to $550,000.

Christie’s sale of Japanese and Korean art on September 17 will include a blue and white porcelain jar from the Joseon dynasty (18th century) with an estimate of $350,000 to $400,000, the painting Playing Children (1960) by Park Sookeun, as well as an original painting by Hokusai, Swimming carp with an estimate of $250,000 to $300,000.

Swimming carp is particularly notable because there are not that many actual paintings by Hokusai available for sale in the art market. “This is really their chance to acquire his actual painting,” Murakami told ARTnews, noting the work’s provenance from the early 19th century.