Hokusai's Great Wave debuts on Japan's new 1000 yen note

Japan's central bank issued redesigned banknotes on July 3, 2024, featuring Katsushika Hokusai's iconic woodblock print "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" on the new 1000 yen note. The artwork, from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji," is among the most reproduced masterpieces in art history. The 1000 yen note is the most common denomination in Japan. The redesign also includes updated 5000 and 10,000 yen notes honoring prominent figures in Japanese medicine. It is customary for the Bank of Japan to create new banknote designs for each emperor; the current project began five years ago with the ascension of Emperor Naruhito in May 2019. The Great Wave design will likely remain in circulation until the end of his reign. In March 2023, a print of the Great Wave sold for over two million dollars at Christie's New York, setting a record. The artwork is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Hokusai (1760–1849) was a painter and printmaker of the ukiyo-e style, and his landscape series elevated Mount Fuji from background to subject. The influential artist Utagawa Hiroshige also contributed to this shift.