# Has anyone ever seen "The Great Wave" at the Met?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-seen-the-great-wave-at-the-met/409801
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 28, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-seen-the-great-wave-at-the-met/409801 "2007-06-28T18:14:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-seen-the-great-wave-at-the-met/409801/1 "2007-06-28T18:14:38Z")
This is probably a dumb question, but I just want a sanity check…
In theory, the painting “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” is at the Met in NYC:
[http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hokusai/](http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hokusai/)
I’ve gone to the Met a couple dozen times and have not managed to find it. Does anyone know where it is?
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### Author:  [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-seen-the-great-wave-at-the-met/409801/2 "2007-06-28T18:36:12Z")
I’m pretty sure I saw iton a greeting card in the gift shop. Or do you mean the original? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-seen-the-great-wave-at-the-met/409801/3 "2007-06-28T19:04:36Z")
It’s listed as being in the [permanent collection](http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=6&viewmode=0&isHighlight=1&item=JP1847), so it should be there somewhere. It’s small, only 10 inches by 15 inches, so it’s probably easy to overlook; perhaps you missed it somewhere? I nearly strolled right by **American Gothic** in Chicago, because it was so small and unassuming, and the **Great Wave** is quite a bit smaller than that, maybe a quarter of the size.
And of course there’s always the possibility that, even though it’s at the Met, it could be “off display” for one reason or another.
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### Author:  [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2007, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-seen-the-great-wave-at-the-met/409801/4 "2007-06-28T19:09:31Z")
[QUOTE=Arnold Winkelried]
I’m pretty sure I saw iton a greeting card in the gift shop. Or do you mean the original? 🙂
[/QUOTE]
Ha. They actually have a big poster of it in the gift shop alcove right near the Asian area. And no, they don’t know where it is either.
And further research reveals it’s actually a print that the Meta has, not a painting. But still…