A Great Wave of Hokusai www.smithsonianmag.com

Katsushika Hokusai was in his 70s by the time he created his best-known image, the majestic The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
Often known simply as The Great Wave, the popular print not only embodied Japanese art, but influenced a generation of artists in Europe, from Van Gogh to Monet.
“Hokusai: Mad About Painting” brings forth from the museum’s storage vaults 120 works of art, from six-panel folding screens to rare preparatory drawings for woodblock prints.
It inspired Debussy and, the ambassador noted, “online, you can buy Great Wave dog bowls, Great Wave socks, or Great Wave stamps and hoodies.”And yet, reproduced in the thousands when Great Wave was released in the early 1830s, the woodblock image is one that isn’t in the museum’s collection.
The one Great Wave that does appear in the show, though, is one that won’t be widely circulated until 2024—when it appears on Japan’s ¥1,000 ($9) bill.