February 20, 2026
A Great Wave of hot takes
The Rediscovery of 103 Hokusai Lost Sketches (2021)
Hokusai’s ‘Lost’ 103 Sketches Found — Fans Ecstatic, British Museum Sparks Drama
TLDR: 103 rediscovered Hokusai sketches ended up in the British Museum after a 2019 Paris auction, thrilling art fans and sparking a fresh fight over where they belong. Commenters celebrated Hokusai’s massive influence (even on comics) and cheered new woodblock reprints while debating repatriation vs preservation.
Art history just did a plot twist: 103 “lost” sketches by Katsushika Hokusai — the guy behind The Great Wave — resurfaced in 2019 and landed in the British Museum, and the internet is buzzing. Fans are swooning over the pages from his abandoned “Great Picture Book of Everything,” while meme-makers are calling it “The Great Wave of takes.” One camp is pure joy: people are linking exhibits and saying Hokusai’s “manga” sketchbooks basically fathered comics, with one fan insisting it’s the origin story of modern panels. Another camp is yelling “give it back,” reviving that eternal London-vs-repatriation debate with side-eye at the British Museum. It’s culture class meets comment chaos.
Meanwhile, the hype gets hands-on: woodblock print master David Bull has already made new prints from the sketches and even streams the craft live on Twitch — turning a 200-year-old project into appointment viewing. Folks are also gasping at the drama of the Paris auction: estimated at €20,000, sold for six times that, then ID’d by collector seals. Some are shocked the museum’s former Japanese art head hadn’t heard of this book at all; others say that’s exactly why rediscoveries are thrilling. The mood: awe, art-nerd joy, and spicy museum ownership discourse — with plenty of puns about “The Great Picture Book of Everything… except where it belongs.”
Key Points
- •A set of 103 sketches by Hokusai for The Great Picture Book of Everything resurfaced in Paris in June 2019 and was later obtained by the British Museum.
- •The project was abandoned for unknown reasons; Hokusai faced personal hardships in the late 1820s, including a stroke, his wife’s death, and poverty.
- •Japanese prints gained popularity in late 19th-century Europe; collector Henri Vever and dealer Hayashi Tadamasa were key figures.
- •During WWI, Vever’s collection was largely sold; Matsukata Kojiro acquired many prints, influencing major Tokyo museums’ collections.
- •The sketches were offered at Auction House Piasa with a €20,000 estimate and sold for about six times that; Israel Goldman and Tim Clark played roles in their evaluation.