One thing is certain about Dr Jitendra Singh – he has a "thing about mountains." The retired Wharton professor has trekked Mt. Everest, voyaged to Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash, and explored the Himalayas (three times). Recently, Dr Singh’s alpine passion reached a new peak. Last month, Singh broke auction records by selling his complete set of Hokusai’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji series for $3.5 million at Christie's live auction of Japanese and Korean Art on March 19.
Related: A New World Record for Hokusai's The Great Wave
The sale marks the first time in 20 years that the full Fuji series went to auction, and the third time that Christie’s set a price record for Hokusai at auction. Created between 1830 and 1833, the series includes the venerated Under the Great Wave off Kanagawa, also known as The Great Wave. Many people are unaware that the Great Wave is part of a larger series, let alone of 45 other prints.
The astounding sale leaves us wondering how one person ends up owning a complete set of Katsushika Hokusai prints.
Related: Ukiyo-e: The Art of Japan
Dr Singh represents a genuine Hokusai aficionado. He discovered the artist in his 40s and began collecting print reproductions in the 1990s. Underlying his admiration for the art was a spiritual appreciation for how Hokusai captured the pure essence of mountains. In the Hindu religion, "climbing mountains is a metaphor for our lives," Dr. Singh explained in a recent New York Times interview.
It was only in 2013, while visiting Tokyo, that Singh acquired his first print of the 46-piece series: Fuji Seen From Kanaya on the Tokaido. After a recommendation led him to Mita Arts Gallery in the Jimbocho district, known for galleries with art from the Ukiyo-e period, Singh confided in the gallery owner his goal of eventually owning the entire collection. This initiated a discreet ten-year correspondence about available prints.
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A decade and $3 million later, Dr Singh officially owned the entire series. The culminating piece was Sazai Hall at the Temple of the Five Hundred Arhats, depicting a temple dedicated to Buddha’s disciples and Mount Fuji far off in the distance, as a vanishing point. Takaaki Murakami, Christie’s head of Japanese and Korean art, calls acquiring such a collection a "once-in-a-generation honor." In truth, it is probably rarer than that, as less than 10 full collections exist in the world.
Growing up as one of eleven children in northern India, Singh recalls that "art was considered a frivolity in our house." Perhaps this explains his personal distaste for showing off artwork – he never displayed a single piece from the series and instead kept them sealed inside Japanese boxes.
Related: 10 Record-Breaking Artworks and Who Bought Them
Singh’s decision to sell came after Christie's sold a print of the Great Wave in 2023 for $2.8 million. While this ten-year expedition has come to a close, it's merely the beginning for the next Hokusai enthusiast ready to embrace the challenge.
