Can an original of "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" be viewed in Japan?
According to the Wikipedia article for "The Great Wave off Kanagawa", copies are stored in various places around the world.
There are various copies of this work throughout the world. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York,[30] the British Museum in London,1 the collection of Claude Monet in Giverny, France,[31] the Sackler Gallery,[32] the Guimet Museum[26] and the National Library of France[33] are some of the places where this work is on exposition. A collection of woodblock Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji prints, contained in the wellness spa of the Costa Concordia was lost during the collision of the ship on January 13, 2012.[34]
Some private collections also have a copy, as is the case of the Gale collection in the USA.
This article (accessed May 14 2014) does not list one place I would expect - Japan! Is it possible to view this woodcut in Japan, or are all of the copies overseas?
edit: See answers below but there is an idea that there is no "original" because it's a woodcut, the same way there is no "original" of a photograph because you can print many copies from a negative.
Best Answer
Tokyo National Museum has it.
Also, Japan Ukiyo-e Museum has it, I do not understand Japanese but I can tell they have it, the website has some English pages, one of them is the opening hours.
Pictures about "Can an original of "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" be viewed in Japan?"
Where is the original copy of The Great Wave off Kanagawa?
Today, original prints of The Great Wave off Kanagawa exist in some of the world's top museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the British Museum.How many original prints of the great wave off Kanagawa are there?
Experts have estimated that this might represent around 8,000 prints.Is The Great Wave off Kanagawa public domain?
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1927.How much is the original Great Wave off Kanagawa worth?
The sale realized an 85 percent sell-through rate and set two world records for Japanese masters. Katsushika Hokusai's woodblock print Under the Well of the Great Wave off Kanagawa, made sometime around 1831, sold for the $1.6 million with buyer's premium, 10 times its low estimate of $150,000.The Great Wave by Hokusai: Great Art Explained
More answers regarding can an original of "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" be viewed in Japan?
Answer 2
The Great Wave is a woodcut. The wood block was created by Hokusai around 1830. During his life this was one of his most popular prints as part of his "36 Views" of Japan edition. It was popular to tourists of the day to buy and bring home prints on mulberry or rice paper, so many hundreds of original impressions were made from the wood block. After Hokusai's death his dealer continued to print from this original block. It it believed that between 5,000 and 10,000 impressions were made from this original plate. But, because they were cheap tourist souvenirs, the vast majority of the impressions were likely destroyed long ago, but somewhere between 100 and perhaps as many as 500 original impressions likely still exist. So, while some might pay $150,000 for an original impression, many in collections remain and can be acquired for far less if one is lucky.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Liam Moore, ArtHouse Studio, Alexander Sergienko, Alexander Sergienko