By Intelligent Collector Staff | March 3, 2025
An early impression of Katsushika Hokusai’s Under the Wave Off Kanagawa (The Great Wave) leads Heritage Auctions’ March 20 presentation of Japanese prints from the Ruth Nelkin Collection during New York’s Asia Week.
Created around 1831 as part of Hokusai’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, the woodblock print has become one of the most recognizable images in art history. The impression offered by Heritage retains details associated with an early state and carries inked guidelines on the reverse suggesting that it may once have been intended for conversion into a folding fan.
The auction extends well beyond its headline image. Hokusai’s Li Bo (Ri Haku), circa 1833, has provenance to Paris collector Henri Vever. The work depicts the celebrated Chinese poet and belongs to a series combining Japanese and Chinese literary subjects.
Early 20th-century shin-hanga is represented by Kawase Hasui’s first-edition Mountain Temple at Sendai from 1919. Tsukioka Yoshitoshi’s Fujiwara no Yasumasa Playing the Flute by Moonlight brings the dramatic narrative tradition of late ukiyo-e into the sale.
For collectors, print quality, state, publisher marks, provenance and condition all influence the significance of an individual impression. With works spanning Edo-period ukiyo-e through shin-hanga, Heritage Auctions offers the breadth and specialist context that can make it the best place to buy fine art for collectors exploring Japanese printmaking.Source: Heritage Auctions press release, “Heritage Celebrates New York’s Asia Week with Two Unmissable Auctions Featuring Masterpieces of Japanese and Asian Art” (March 3, 2025).