Famous Mount Fuji prints to be auctioned in New York in March 2024

The series of prints “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” is considered the “undoubted masterpiece of color prints” by Katsushika Hokusai. It was created by Hokusai in 1830 when he was at the height of his career and published by Nishimura Yohachi. The three most famous of these are: The Great Wave off Kanagawa, The Wind Calm, Blue Sky and The Storm Below the Mountain.

Mount Fuji is a popular subject in Japanese art because of its cultural and religious significance. Each work was made through a process in which Hokusai’s paper drawing was pasted onto a wooden block to be engraved. The original design was lost in the process. The block was then inked and pasted onto paper to create the image. The complexity of Hokusai’s designs included the color palette he used, which required a separate printing block for each color in the image.

Christie's said it expected the prints from the series titled "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji", made between 1830 and 1833, to fetch a total of "millions" of dollars.

“The last time a complete set of these paintings came to market was more than 20 years ago, in 2002,” said Takaaki Murakami, head of the Japanese and Korean art department at Christie’s in New York. “Some of the prints in this set are earlier prints, while others are later prints,” Murakami said.

In March, a single print of “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” from the same series sold for $2.76 million at Christie’s. Murakami said the previous auction was “not comparable” to the upcoming auction of the entire series.

According to the auction house, the seller is a US citizen.