You know the person. They came back from Japan with a suitcase of ceramics wrapped in socks, or they have never been and have a Great Wave postcard pinned above the desk anyway. Either way, they will notice if the gift is lazy.
The Great Wave is printed on nearly everything, which makes it easy to buy badly. Museum shops are a safer place to look: several of these museums hold Japanese prints themselves, and some of their shops also stock porcelain, glass and lacquer that is actually made in Japan.
We picked 15 things from 7 museum shops. The list starts with the Wave, moves on to other prints and the books about them, and ends with objects from Japanese workshops.
Hokusai designed Under the Wave off Kanagawa around 1830 to 1833, for his series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. The Art Institute of Chicago has the print in its collection, though it is rarely on the wall. Its shop quotes the museum's curator of Japanese art: a print is shown for three months, every five years, because light fades it.
A long shawl, 78 by 28 inches, with the wave running across it and Mount Fuji small underneath, as in the print. The shop lists it as a silk blend with an eyelash fringe. Hand wash and hang to dry, so it is less fussy than most scarves at this size.
A 500-piece puzzle from Pomegranate that finishes at 27 by 18 inches, on recycled board with a matte surface. The foam and the boats give you plenty to work with. The pale sky is the part that will take the evening.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has its own impression of the Great Wave, and this enamel pin is based on it. It measures 1 by 1.25 inches, with a black rubber clutch, and comes on a small backing card. Easy to post, hard to object to.
For the person who already owns the Wave three times over. The Japanese artist Ay-O redrew Hokusai in rainbow stripes in 1970, and the Louisiana museum in Denmark put a section of it on the poster for its 1974 exhibition Japan on Louisiana. A1 size, 59.4 by 84.1 cm, on 200 g paper. The price shown is in Danish kroner.
Hokusai's sketchbooks, first published in 1814 as a handbook for students and eventually running to 15 volumes. This boxed set of three small softcovers selects from them across 1,040 pages: daily life in Edo, the natural world, and monsters. Each volume is about 6 by 4.4 inches, so it reads like a pocket book.
Plum Estate, Kameido, from Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. The Brooklyn Museum owns a set of the series, and this is the 1857 design that Van Gogh copied in oils thirty years later. Printed on demand in three sizes from 16 by 20 inches, framed or not. Allow up to three weeks, and it cannot be returned.
Thirty-one color postcards from the Art Institute of Chicago's own collection of Japanese prints, published by the museum. The selection covers more than 350 years, from woodblock to silkscreen, with figures, landscapes and abstract images. Each card is 6.5 by 4.75 inches. Send them, or prop them along a shelf.
A book for the reader who is past the famous landscapes. The Royal Ontario Museum published this 215-page paperback on the wakashu, the male youths of Edo-period Japan, with more than a hundred works from its own collection by Harunobu, Utamaro, Kunisada and others. The price is in Canadian dollars.
No waves here, with one exception. These are things from Japanese kilns and workshops that a museum shop happens to carry.
A straight-sided mug from Hasami, a village in Nagasaki prefecture where porcelain has been made for more than 400 years. The line is a collaboration with the designer Taku Shinomoto, in a blend of clay and crushed local stone. Cooper Hewitt offers three sizes, 11, 13 and 15 ounces. Plain enough to suit any kitchen.
The exception. Seigaiha is the traditional Japanese pattern of overlapping blue waves, and it covers this shallow porcelain bowl from Tokyo Design Studio. The shop says the range is manufactured in Japan and gives the size as 22.5 by 5 cm. A quieter way to give someone a wave. Priced in Danish kroner.
A two-tier bento box by Takenaka, a company founded in Ishikawa in 1925. The lid has a woven herringbone pattern called ajiro, in a brown finish that looks like lacquer but, the shop says, survives the dishwasher and microwave. It is small: 15.3 cm long, holding 200 and 300 ml, with a band to keep it shut.
A hand-blown glass bud vase in blue, about 2.6 by 2.8 inches, listed by SFMOMA as handmade in Japan by Ishizuka Glass Co. Because each one is blown by hand, no two are quite the same. It holds a stem or two, and looks finished with nothing in it at all.
A ballpoint pen finished in Yamanaka-nuri, the lacquerware of Yamanaka Onsen in Ishikawa prefecture, with a dragon painted along the barrel. The shop suggests it for a promotion or a new business, since the dragon stands for power and protection. The page gives no refill details, so ask before buying for a heavy writer.
A paper tray from Shin Kogei, a workshop in Hida-Takayama in Gifu prefecture, printed in a traditional way with a winter scene from the old town. It measures 21.5 by 14.5 cm and 1.5 cm deep. The right size for keys, letters or a pair of glasses, and not for anything wet.
Netsuke were the carved toggles that held a pouch to a kimono sash, since kimono have no pockets. This is a replica of an early 19th-century octopus by Gyokuzan in LACMA's collection, cast in resin with ground stone, about 1.6 inches tall, in its own pouch. The octopus is a wish for much happiness.
We read the public catalogs of the museum shops. Nobody paid to be on this list, and no brand sent us samples: we have not handled these items ourselves. Sizes and materials come from each shop's own product page, which is also where you buy.
Prices can change and items sell out. When a pick is no longer listed by its shop, it drops off this page.
The Royal Ontario Museum prices in Canadian dollars and the Louisiana in Danish kroner, and both ship from outside the United States, so check delivery to your country before you order.
Want to see everything? Browse all 53 Hokusai items, or the wider shelf of Japanese art and craft gifts.