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A rare print The Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai sold at auction last week for nearly $2.8 million—a record high for the Japanese artist, according to Christie’s. 

Up to 8,000 copies The Great Wave May have been in existence at one point. Today, only about 200 remain, “making the version auctioned at Christie’s all the more remarkable,” writes Hyperallergic’s Taylor Michael. According to the auction house this copy is one the best surviving.

The 14.6-inch-wide piece, which depicts three fishing boats in stormy seas, is likely an early version of the print, featuring crisp lines and a faint cloud in the scene’s sky. It is one of the most famous examples of Japan’s ukiyo-e style, whose practitioners produced many copies of their works via woodblock print. 

Sarah Thompson, curator of an exhibition on Hokusai at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, tells Hyperallergic The print’s narrative qualities have ensured its survival. 

“​​Will those three little boats get home safely, or are they doomed? You can be either optimistic or pessimistic about that,” she says. “Personally, I think they will make it.”

Hokusai (1760-1849), was a prolific author. ukiyo-e Artist and printmaker, he created many works, including illustrations for books and prints. Most well-known for his work on the book “Paintings of the Sun”. Threety-six views of Mount FujiA woodblock print series featuring Mount Fuji in various conditions. The Great Wave is the series’ first print.

“Woodblock prints were inexpensive (you could buy a print of The Great Wave for the same price as about two helpings of noodles in the mid-19th century) and prints of a given design were produced as long as there were customers willing to buy them,” writes the British Museum.

Hokusai’s unique style and experimentation in perspective, color and composition are well-known. His influence, however, extended beyond Japan, and his work played a key role in the development of European art in the 19th century, influencing artists like Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. He is one of Japan’s most famous artists.

The Great Wave is “one of the most recognized images in the art world,” as Smithsonian magazine’s Roger Catlin wrote in 2019. “The famous work can be found on an interior page of the Japanese passport with others from the artist’s Threety-six views of Mount Fuji.” Outside of Japan, the tumultuous ocean scene is ubiquitous in pop culture—from Apple’s wave emoji to Lego’s version of the image.

“Many people view the painting as the very essence of Japanese culture,” Atsuko Okuda, chief curator of the Sumida Hokusai Museum in Japan, told CNN’s Dan Tham and Junko Ogura in 2019. “The simple and powerful composition of the mountain and the shape of the wave strikes right at the heart of the observer.”