Hokusai’s acclaimed centuries-old 2-D artwork looks even more beautiful in 3-D.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa is one of Japan’s most famous ukiyo-e woodblock prints, created by master artist Hokusai in the late Edo period (1603-1868). As part of the acclaimed series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, this print places the Japanese mountain in a dynamic context, dwarfed by giant waves spraying foam in the foreground as three tiny boats bravely navigate the waters off the coast of what’s now Yokohama in Kanagawa Prefecture.

▼ The Great Wave off Kanagawa

While the artwork has been admired by people all over the world for centuries, now it’s being viewed in an entirely new light, thanks to a Japanese artist who recently recreated the image in 3-D form. The artist, who goes by the handle @jad_ko on Twitter, specialises in making marine scenes with resin and plastic and when this technique was applied to The Great Wave, it created something so special that people online immediately went crazy for it.

Photos of the piece posted by @jad_ko quickly went viral, earning over 67,000 likes and more than 20,000 retweets in just a few days.

While the details can be a little hard to make out in the photos, video provides a better idea of what it would be like to live in a Hokusai world.

The famous scene looks extra beautiful in its 3-D rendering, and many online agreed, leaving comments like:

“This is a true work of art!”
“Please produce this commercially. I desperately want one!”
“It looks exactly like the real thing!”
“Foreign tourists would love to buy this as a souvenir!”
“This shows a true understanding of 3-D layout.”
“It never crossed my mind to think this would be possible! Please recreate the rest of the series!”

With 35 other prints in the series, plus 10 additions, there’s at least 45 more Fuji-filled Hokusai prints just waiting to be transformed into 3-D wonderlands. And that’s barely scratching the surface of the ukiyo-e world, which has evolved in recent years to even include Nintendo characters.

Here’s hoping @jad_ko has time to add more masterpieces to their page at online marketplace site Minne, or better still produce these commercially, because if the popularity of Japan’s ukiyoe beers and condoms has taught us anything, it’s that demand is certainly high for Japanese woodblock prints.

Source: Japaaan
Featured image: Twitter/@jad_ko
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