Japan – November 08, 2026 -- Visitors in Japan can now see Hokusai folding screens that normally never leave Washington, DC, in a Digital × Hokusai exhibition organized by NTT East that uses high-resolution digital replicas and immersive projection.
A will keeps the originals in Washington
Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919) made his fortune in the US railway industry. Through his friendship with the painter James McNeill Whistler, he developed a deep interest in Asian art. His Hokusai paintings are said to be the finest collection in the world.
After his death, the collection went to the Smithsonian Institution. In 1923 the National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA) opened as the first national art museum and the first Asian art museum in the United States. Under Freer's will, his works can be shown only at the NMAA, so chances to see them are limited.
Six works were scanned on site at the NMAA
The exhibition marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States and was developed with the NMAA's cooperation. The museum selected folding screen paintings, and so few of Hokusai's screens remain in Japan that these are especially rare. NTT ArtTechnology and Ars Techne digitized them in the US, together with Breaking Waves, which the exhibition describes as the culmination of Hokusai's lifelong effort to depict waves.
The teams performed high-resolution digitization and color calibration of all six works at the museum. They used Ars Techne's patented Dynamic Texture Image Processing (DTIP) technology to reach about two billion pixels per square meter. It is the first time the NMAA's Hokusai paintings have been digitized at this resolution.
A four-surface theater surrounds visitors with the screens
The 3D Dive Theater projects video onto four surfaces: front, sides and floor. It shows works (2), (3), (5) and (6) in a continuous sequence. The organizers note that a pair of six-panel folding screens fills the viewer's entire field of vision when fully unfolded.
A Floating Giga Viewer lets visitors zoom in on digital images of all six works. An exhibition catalog and merchandise made from the high-resolution data will be on sale at the venue.
The scans could also support research and a Detroit show
NMAA Director Chase F. Robinson said the digitization lets audiences who may never visit Washington see the works's surfaces, scale and detail. The data is expected to support research at the NMAA as well as the exhibition's digital works and reproductions.
The NMAA is also considering showing high-resolution reproduction folding screens at the Freer House in Detroit.