Shukado Newletter No.13 Saito Shinichi Exb.

Hello! This is Sachiko sending Shukado Newsletter vol.13.

We are enjoying beautiful flower season in Japan!
Although I was thinking about writing the continuation of the previous newsletter on ukiyo-e, we have an important announcement for you regarding "Shinichi Saito Exhibition" which will be held at our gallery in Ginza.

Before I write about the Shinichi Saito Exhibition, I would like to touch upon some interesting comments from our Japanese newsletter written by Ikuko-san who is in charge of customer relations with overseas customers at Shukado. She wrote: -------------------All of staffs at Shukado are very busy with preparation for the Saito Shinichi Exhibition and publication of the catalog. I recalled about one year ago when we were very busy with catalog publication around this time.

One year has passed since I joined Shukado. Although I am still very "green" in this art dealing business comparing to our chairman who has an extensive experience of 40 years in this business, I gradually learned about the correlation between the quality of the item and the customer. After one year experience of handling inquiries from customers regarding valuation of the customer's items, I have noticed that there is a correlation between the customer and the quality of the items.

In short, the customer who do not give his/her name, who often give complaints or who is in a hurry to have his/her items evaluated, usually do not have valuable items. (I do not mean that it is not good to make complaints or claims. Your comments are always welcome.)If I get very negative impression from the customer, the item of the customer is usually found out to be a fake item.

I do not know why it is so but this is usually the case.
(End of her comment)

---------------------------------

Ummm… It is very interesting.
Let me get back to the track here.

****** Shinichi Saito Exhibition ******
Shukado gallery is now in the dark.Mysterious atmosphere is created by the paintings depicting Goze (blind female performers), courtesans and a woman weeping with big tears. You may hear the sound of Tsugaru Shamisen (three stringed Japanese instrument) there. Pocket-size catalog adds a flavor to the exhibition.
https://www.syukado.jp/en/catalog/index.html#saito

What is this about?
"Shinichi Saito Exhibition" is being held from Monday, May 26 to Saturday, May 31. The title of this exhibition is "Shinichi Saito --- His Wander of Sorrow ---". Shinichi Saito came to know about wandering Goze for the first time on his trip to Tsugaru, northern Japan. He was captivated by Goze's attractiveness and often visited Echigo (Niigata prefecture) where they came from. He even traveled in the mountains to see them. Saito himself wandered to chase wandering Goze and continued to create paintings depicting them like a strolling story teller. We introduce selected 12 items of Shinichi Saito's artworks including rare items from 50's, Goze Diary series, Yoshiwara Saiken-ki series and his manuscripts.

Through Saito's artworks and his world view, I hope that the visitors will see sorrow and melancholy of life, pain and joy, love and illusion and meanings of life.Complimentary copies of the exhibition catalog are available at the venue.
If you are in Tokyo during this period, please visit our exhibition.Detailed information on the exhibition available here
→http://www.syukado.jp/jp/gallery/2008saito_shinichi.html (Japanese Only)

And you can request the pocket-size catalog of Saito Shinichi Exhibition. https://www.syukado.jp/en/catalog/index.html#saito (For Free!)

*******************************************
Profile: Shinichi Saito (1922-1994)
Shinichi Saito is a famous western style painter. He graduated from Tokyo Fine Arts School in 1984. He traveled around Europe on a motorcycle in 1959 and studied in France then met with Tsuguharu Fujita (Leonard Fujita).
In 1971, his artwork "Elegy of Misao Goze --- Echigo Goze Diary" was awarded honorable mention of the 14th Yasui Award. In 1973, his essay depicting Goze and his unique view of spiritual world was awarded Japan Essayist Club Award. Through his award winning painting and essay brought Goze women, who played shami-sen musical instrument in deep-snowed Tusgaru region, into a spot light.
His novel "Yoshiwara Enjyo (Yoshiwara on Fire)" was often used for the theater plays and films.
*********************************************
Well, I would like to wrap up my news letter here by introducing you our recommended items.
*********************************************************

New Arrivals:
*********************************************************
Mio Goseki's Tiger in the Snow
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108001410/

Mio Goseki (1885-1946) was born in Tokyo. His real name is Hidetarou. He was taught by a famous Shijyo school painter Oohashi Suiseki who was well known for his excellent paintings depicting tigers. Goseki is also well known for his paintings of tigers.

The contrast between soft white snow and ferocious tiger is very distinctive. Sharp and neatly depicted tiger's fur and its muscular body look outstanding. This painting will give the viewers a sense of overwhelming presence of the tiger. The vividly painted tiger looks like to roar at any moment.

And more:Tsubaki Chinzan's Flower Scroll and Mori Kansai's Deer in the Mountain
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000620/http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000970/

Otani Kubutsu's White Robed Kannon Scroll
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000082/
That is all for this week.
Have a wonderful week!
Sachiko & Chiaki

Shukado News Letter No.12 Who opened Japan

Dear Customers and Friends,

Hello! This is Sachiko sending Shukado Newsletter vol.12.

We are enjoying lovely early summer weather in Tokyo now. Fresh green and flowers are so beautiful.

Do you know who first opened Tokugawa shogunate Japan in the 19th Century?

Commodore Mathew Perry and Townsend Harris, the first US Consul General to Japan are very famous historic figures in Japan, who came to Japan in the black ship to open the country. They appear in every history textbook from elementary to high school level in Japan. I am not sure if the school history textbooks outside of Japan mention about their visit to Japan.

The biggest reason that the United States sent Matthew Perry to Japan was to use it as a "coaling base" or a base where steamships, which used coal, could restock their coal supply. Japan was a perfect location for this because it was at almost the same latitude as San Francisco. The United States Navy already used Hawaii as a port for coaling, but they needed another port for steamships in the east. Other big reasons were improvement of shipwrecked sailors' treatment in Japan and trade.

The other day, I had a chance to visit Tokyo Edo Museum
(http://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/english/) to see the "The Perry and Harris Exhibition --- The Dawn of US-Japan Relations---". Perry and Harris contributed to concluding the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce in 1858, which opened major ports of Japan to the US vessels. This treaty increased the volume of export from Japan and finally triggered the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate.





The US Deputy Secretary Negroponte enjoyed a visit to this exhibition during his visit to Japan a couple of weeks ago. Why don't you visit there if you are in Japan? This special exhibition opens until June 22.
Some pictures taken there can be seen at the President's blog. (I didn't see the Deputy Secretary when I visited there.)

At the exhibition, it was very interesting to see ukiyo-e portraits of Perry and Harris. All of ukiyo-e prints of their portraits look so different. Some of them are totally based on ukiyo-e artist's imagination and one of them even looked like a famous Chinese warrior.





Although some of those ukiyo-e portraits were far away from their actual images, those ukiyo-e prints were distributed all over Japan after their arrival and spread the information on them such as their height, appearance, the distance between Japan and Washington. It was also very interesting to find
that Perry was depicted like a Kabuki actor while William Heine, a painter came to Japan with Perry, depicted Japanese people in Western style. (e.g. slightly bigger nose and bigger eyes)

In the Edo era, ukiyo-e prints were spread from children to adult and from commoners to samurai.
Ukiyo-e always reflected the latest social trend and news and sometimes served as news media, educational material and pure entertainment. Therefore, the news of the visit of Perry and Harris spread all over Japan in a short period of time.

Different from paintings, ukiyo-e prints were not so highly valued at that time. The low price of ukiyo-e made them accessible even for children. Small sized yakusha-e (actor's portrait) priced around 8 mon (current value of 150 yen or 1.5 dollars considering the fact one bowl of hot soba noodles with no topping priced around 16 mon (presently 300 yen) at that time ).

Although there were high quality nishiki-e prints sold at around 100 mon, the Tokugawa shogunate tried to set the limit of their price in order to restrict commoners' extravagance.

They were mentioned in the book titled "Edo Ukiyo-e o Yomu" written by Tadashi Kobayashi who is a famous scholar of ukiyo-e and Edo culture.

After the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce was concluded, ukiyo-e was used as packing material for ceramic ware to export overseas. Many people appreciated this "packing material" and some people were even eager to collect them.

Then after the Paris Expo in 1859, Japanese art dealer such as Hayashi Trading and Samurai Trading began to sell ukiyo-e which were not so highly valued in Japan but very popular among people overseas.

The collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867 caused financial difficulties for many of the feudal lords and had to sell off their collection and bigger volume of Japanese fine arts were exported overseas. Then exporting Japanese fine arts became a big business later on in the Meiji era.

In the next newsletter, I would like to touch upon the reasons why ukiyo-e prints could become so popular overseas and the influence of ukiyo-e on overseas artists.

Well, I would like to wrap up my news letter here by introducing you our recommended items.

*********************************************************
New Arrivals:
*********************************************************

Utagawa Kunisada "Azuma no utsushi-e" Ukiyo-e print
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000273/

This is a print created by Utagawa Kunisada between ca.1847 and 1852 and published by Sanoya Kihei.

Utagawa Kunisada (1786 - 1865) who was also known as Utagawa Toyokuni III(He called himself Toyokuni II) was the most popular, prolific and financially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19th-century Japan.

Fanciful "Rokaku" (multistoried building) where ocean and mountain are overlooked far away is depicted in this work. Men and women wearing florid kimono are friendly chatting, and the patterns of their kimono and furnishings in the room suggest that the theme of the tale of Genji is hidden in this artwork.

This kind of intellectual game is a part of ukiyo-e's appeal.


and more:
Beautiful landscape painting of Hashimoto Dokuzan, Visit to the Mountain Retreat
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107008360/

Fantacy san-sui-ga world of Yamada Kaido, Visit to the Retreat on the Water, Landscape with Chinese Poem
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108001080/

Chinese style bird-and-flower painting of Nanpin-ha Anonymous Artist, Birds and Flowers, Edo Era
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000130/

Odake Kokkan's "Celestial Maden" and Kawabe Mitate's Kakejiku depicting misterious beauty (Hanging Scrolls)
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000200/
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000190/


That is all for this week.

Thank you for taking your prescious time for reading this newsletter to the end.

See you next week!

Have a wonderful week!

Sachiko & Chiaki


**We are sending Shukado News Letter - the information of
new arrivals.
If you would like to join our mailing list, please visit here:
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/mail/join.htm
backnumber:
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/
---------------------------------------------
Japanese Fine Arts.com by SHUKADO
Address: Sone Building 7F, Ginza 6-4-8, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061
TEL:(international number)+81-3-3569-3620 FAX:+81-3-3569-3621
email: info@japanese-finearts.com
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/

ONLINE GALLERY SYUKADO (Japanese)
http://www.syukado.jp
master@syukado.jp

Shukado President's Blog(including backnumber of Shukado News Letters)
*Blogger site
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/
*Ichiroya site
http://www.ichiroya.com/blog/Chiaki/