Nissan Skyline celebrates 60th anniversary with Hokusai’s art

Who doesn’t know the Nissan Skyline? The Skyline was first introduced by the Japan-based Prince Motor Company in 1957, as the successor of the Prince Sedan, and later on when Nissan and Prince merged in 1966, the Skyline was then sold in dealership stores called Nissan Prince Shop.

The main designer and engineer of the Skyline was Shinichiro Sakurai, he was a chief influencer from the beginning until his death in 2011. The Skyline comes in several body types including: sedan, coupe, crossover, convertible, and station wagons.

To celebrate the anniversary of the Skyline sixty years later, Nissan commemorated each generation of the model with a woodblock print from famed artist Hokusai - each poster comes as a scroll with an illustration of the car model and a backdrop of one of Hokusai’s work of art.

For instance, the original 1957 model is drawn over Hokusai’s famous giant wave print with a small Mount Fuji on the ride hand side, which serves as a background of the Skyline. In fact, the first two generations of the Skyline are actually not Nissans, but they still remained in the lineup after the merger was established.

LeVolant Boost says that the artworks will be on display at the Grand Sumo wrestling location for a limited time only from May 14 to May 28. So if you’re going to be in Japan in the next two weeks, you know where to go.

At last year’s Europe’s Japfest, the largest show celebrating Japanese culture and cars, there was a poll for the “Most Iconic Japanese Car Ever”, and it was a landslide. The Skyline got the most number of votes - therefore winning the poll. The Toyota Supra came in second place, while the Subaru Impreza WRX came in third.

In Japan, the Skyline and the GT-R are considered two separate elements in Nissan’s lineup. And for other markets, the Skyline is known as the Infiniti Q50. However, it seems like the plan to equip the model with GT-R’s 3.8 liter biturbo V6 engine will not be happening. Too bad, as it will be nice to have a top-performing four-door.

But today, the GT-R is still on sale after it was given a facelift by Nissan. And we can expect a hybrid version of it for the next generation model, though there is no timeframe yet for the arrival of the new coupe.

It would be a great idea if the Japanese company can actually print a lot more copies of these and sell them individually, or better yet, as a set. Skyline enthusiasts will definitely be interested to buy the prints. The cool thing about this is the fact that art has been combined with iconic cars.