National Palace Museum to display 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa'

Taipei, April 29 (CNA) The Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum will present the iconic woodblock print "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" by Katsushika Hokusai in a new exhibition starting at the end of May showcasing Japanese art treasures.

The masterpiece, on loan from the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, will be displayed for one month from May 30 to June 29 as part of the museum's three-month exhibition "The Beauty of the Floating World in Edo."

Chu Lung-hsing (朱龍興), an associate researcher and curator of the exhibition at the museum, said that the woodblock print captures towering waves "almost swallowing up" fishing boats beneath the serene Mount Fuji in the background, creating a "harmony between movement and stillness" in one of the most recognizable images in Japanese art.

The cultural significance of the print, which was created between 1831 and 1833, is reflected in the fact it was selected as the main image for a new 1,000-yen banknote issued by the Bank of Japan in 2024, Chu said.

The new exhibition will highlight the "vibrant delights of Edo-period urban life" through the 218 works on display, including folding screens, hand scrolls, prints and illustrated books, Chu said.

Most of those artworks hail from prestigious Japanese institutions including the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Waseda University Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Kuboso Memorial Museum of Arts, Tokyo Metropolitan Library, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum and National Museum of Japanese History.

The exhibition will be organized into four sections -- "River Prosperity," "Urban Times," "Travel Fun" and "Cross-cultural Exchange" -- with works rotated between May 30 and August 31 to offer fresh visitor experiences, Chu said.

Regular admission to the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum, which is located in Taibao City in Chiayi County, is NT$150 for visitors of all nationalities, according to the museum's website.