President Blog --- Chiaki Tanaka

Our News Letter on new edition on HTML

2009-12-01T03:35:00.000+09:00

Shukado News letter

Hello from Shukado.

This is Ikuko, Shukado staff. Ogenki desuka? To start off, I would like to say thank everyone to read our news letter always, our new letter started NEW style. We are thinking how to give you better service and our online store which will be gradually accepted as a highly trusted and secure website. We don' t want to tell you "Check your self" anymore. I hope you enjoy to read our NEW news letter and happy to visite our web gallery.

If you are interested in these items, please check it out and please let us know.

It's always our honor to assist you!!

Recently Shukado news !

In last news letter, I introduced new artist Ikenaga Yasunari who we supported the first time. I would like to say thank you for your response about interesting his artworks. Unfortunately or fortunately his artworks were all sold out! but in this week, we receive few his fresh works from him. We will send you some picture of his artworks as soon as possible. I hope you will be excited to see his new works.

-Ikenaga Yasunari-

Anyway, in this week, we updated wonderful portrait of Kiyochika and others. We will join a ukiyo-e market next week, we have a hunch that we can purchase some interesting items there, so please don't forget to browse our site again!

- Click here for our New arrivals -

What we would like to do is;

To build a firm friendship with you and to let you know about Japanese art more deeply.

To listen to your requests and comply with as possible.

To introduce new arrivals and treasured artworks.

Click Here for more information about Japanese Fine Arts.com

Please let us hear your voice.

Don't you introduce how tto appreciate your collection in our news letter. We would like to write your introduction as article about us. At the same time, we are also collecting your opinion and comment. Category and price are acceptable.We will appreciate your frank comments. NOTHING LIKE CUSTOMER'S VOICES MAKE US HAPPY!!

WE WELCOME YOU!!

Address: Sone Bld. 7F,

Ginza 6- 4-8, Chuo-ku, Tokyo,

104-0061

Tel: 81-3-3569-3620

Fax:81-3-3569-3620

Hello, this is Shukado. Please enjoy our NEW news letter.

---------------
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/

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Check my twitter accont

2009-12-01T03:27:00.004+09:00

I started twitter about 2 weeks ago. Please check me:

Mainly I twitt in Japanese, but sometimes in English!

You can see my account on the link below:

http://twitter.com/chiakiaojc

Yesterday, we receive many orders from overseas. France,Spain,Greek,Australia and so on. Thank you deeply for loving Japanese Art!

Tax Investigation Cleared

2009-11-28T09:30:00.003+09:00

The tax investigation staff came to our office and have checked our money in-out from 2 days ago to yesterday. We are making very honest money book so we won very complete result. Huhhh...

WE Editing Newest Catalog 22

2009-11-27T10:27:00.003+09:00

We are editing the Next Catalog Shukado Voume 22 and will finish to do. Next week we are to print and publish new one.

On the next catalog, many Beauties of Ukiyoe , not print but actual painting.

By the way, I recently started to do "twitter".

This is my account.

http://twitter.com/chiakiaojc

Please follow me! thanks.

Shukado Newsletter No.24 Matazo

2009-05-05T16:11:00.000+09:00

Dear customers & friends,

This is Chiaki Tanaka of Shukado sending Shukado Newsletter No.24

First of all, check our updated works...
****************************
New coming works!!

Recently, we undated two lovely works of Kobayashi
Kiyochika,
Yasui Nobukazu of "Victory of Pyongyan", three
Sumo brocade pictures and other special ukiyo-e.
We are sure when you click on our new arrivals

CLICK HERE
>>> http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list/35/

you will absolutely discover a "Great BUY!!"

Please check it out!

****************************

Today, I would like to introduce an artist to you.

His name is Kayama Matazo.
He passed away five years ago in 2004.

We can call him the last great artist of the modern art.
If the feature of his artworks can be described in a single phrase, it
would be "cold" paintings. And also, the catch-phrase to be given to his
artworks would be "a passion of minus 40 degrees".
Anyway, please click below so that you can get the image.

http://www.kayamaten.jp/midokoro/chapter3.html

The model looks as if she has been drained her blood and dressed a
velvet knit rather than a living woman. For people who get used to see
well-rounded body and eroticism in ordinary nude, this artwork would
look strange.

It seems Kayama defined his beauty as the one transformed in his way
from a traditional ukiyoe beauty which lines are particular as you
could see in the ukiyoe painted by Harunobu and Utamaro.

And this is what I think Kayama's representative artwork, Folding
screen of four seasons.

http://www.kayamaten.jp/midokoro/chapter2.html

There is an original folding screen created around 14-16 century that
Kayama could have referred to, which is called “Jitsugetsusansuizu”and
designated as an important cultural property.

http://rakutyuurakugai.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2008/01/biombo_390d.html

Please look at his other artworks in "the exhibition of Kayama Matazo" on
the website.
http://www.kayamaten.jp/

You could see his art style in which east and west culture strongly
conflict but at the same time get fused with tension.

The sense of worth supporting Kayama's art is I think "impermanence of
worldly things".

Japanese people traditionally respect the thought that all of things
should be changing without staying in the same state.

Glory of a prosperous family doesn't last long, flowers fall, and even a
beautiful woman dies, decomposes and becomes skeleton.

Probably Kayama's artworks express that human being is nothing more than
one of flowers which bloom in a destiny nothing can escape. Otherwise,
that would be his life philosophy reflected in his expression.

That's why his art world is separated from that of Renoir in which
beautiful girls or sunlight warm viewers. Such chilly cold but sharp
fineness invites us to the world of beauty beyond life and death.

It may be because of the difference in social background between Renoir
and Kayama, the former lived in wartime and the latter reached to the
top during the time of rapid economic growth and bubble economy. Renoir
longed for sunlight while Kayama watched the time of economic boom a
short distance away.

I wrote here because I would like to let you know there was Kayama at
one of tops in the Japanese modern art.

Chiaki Tanaka

**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/

Shukado News Letter No.23 Hope

2009-03-13T09:18:00.001+09:00

Dear Customers & Friends,
Hello from Ginza,Tokyo.

This is Chiaki Tanaka sending Shukado Newsletter No.23

Media's economic indicator is always low.

Even when I'm watching the streets in Tokyo through the window of taxi, I have an impression that the traffic is decreasing by approx. 20% compared to the last two years.
Although Tokyo has a bad reputation of the heavy traffic since long time ago, we can smoothly get to the destination these days.

-----***-----
I will pick up some of our updated art works on our website.

An antique scroll painting depicting dancing beauty.
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108004920/
Female Monk by Utagawa Kunihisa
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108005710/
-----***-----

I heard that the number of foreign tourists is decreasing as well.

So, couldn't we find any hope in the world ?

Of course, I don't think so.

One of the reasons I say so is that a lot of driving ranges are almost always full. It says that there still are a lot of people who can enjoy their hobby and spend money for that. Also, I have an opinion that the drop in stock prices provides a chance of making money. Although investors suffer latent loss, they would be buying other stocks not to miss the chance. A lot of companies should be rebuilding management in order to raise their profit.

It is true that car sale is sluggish in both Japan and the USA. But it is also true that a lot of people need cars in any situation. When the need and supply will have normalized, car industry would get back the proper balance.

As for our company, the number of visitors to our website, Japanese Fine Arts, is increasing little by little, besides the visitors who subscribed to the membership of our catalogue are steadily increasing. It says people who love art exist in any situation.

Cf. Request Page for our Catalogue SHUKADO
http://www.syukado.jp/en/catalog/

On the other day, I joined a lecture by Prof. Takeshi Yoro, famous brain scientist in Japan, and heard an interesting story. He said, in fact, in the world, what brain can grasp or what the science can explain is only a part of it. We should know about it.

Also, according to him, 70% of Japanese people think they would be trusting what the science has defined at 30 years from now while only 30% of American people say yes. I'm wondering if their religion affects on their thoughts. What about people in Europe or China? Anyway, it seems that Japanese people trust the science, theory too much.

Prof. Yoro also mentioned on the second law of thermodynamics, law of entropy increase, and said, once the world is given the order, it begins to bring chaos. In my opinion, the trading of CO2 emission is nothing but a logic and very dangerous.

Cf.Second law of thermodynamics by Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics

The art is so-called a culture of right brain. It brings a chaotic element into the logical world. Therefore, it is what this left-brain society absolutely needs. That's why the art is never gone.

It looks that the need of art is lower in Japan than in the USA and Europe, but it was different before. Maybe Japanese people lost their mental richness at the defeat of war, and worked hard and saved money in order to catch up with other big countries. They also lost virtue, modesty and thoughtfulness. The fact that a lot of Japanese people trust the science looks signifying their heart is thirsty.

So please have an interest in Japanese art and say "Japan is a good country", and let us find it again. We are keep working not to be made fool of, not to be colonized, and now exhausted.

As you will find when looking at Japanese antiques, the Japanese culture used to be casual and playful. At the same time, it has also reflected thoughts of death and absence on its artworks. We should be proud of our history, but the number of suicide is about 30,000 a year, almost 6 times more than the death by traffic accident.

Cf. Suicide in Japan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Japan

Actually,I have expected to introduce you Kayama Matazo, one of important artists in Japan, passed away in 2000. But the prologue became too long. Next time, I promise.

-----***-----
Last Pick Up of today.
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Famous series of Tsuki-hyaku-shi / Hundred aspects of the Moon
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/search.php?md=0311
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/search.php?md=0302

Hiroshige's dynamic sceneries
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/search.php?md=0227

Yoshitoshi's Newspapaer of "Hochi-Shinbun"
Bloody Newspaper print like the Sweeney Todd by Tim Burton...
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/search.php?md=0225

-----***-----

**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/
*Japanese Blog
http://www.aojc.co.jp/blog/

Shukado News Letter No.22

2009-02-16T16:58:00.002+09:00

Dear customers and friends,

Good afternoon from Ginza,Tokyo,Japan!

This is Chiaki Tanaka sending Shukado News Letter No.22.

I'm so sorry that it's been long time since we issued the email newsletter last time.

Time flies. It's been already in the middle of February!

-----***-----
I will pick up some of our updated art works on our website.

Utagawa Yoshitora, "Kanjin Oosumo Torikumizu" Triptych
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108005740/
** Sumo wrestlers' fights in the Big big play field in Meiji era!

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's "Newspaper" Print.
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/search.php?md=0213
**In 19th century, primitive newspapers were published with woodblock
prints. Hochi Shinbun News was very shocking and reported bloody
articles.
-----***-----

Also, thanks to you, our overseas website marked the 2nd anniversary.
Since our sales have grown little by little in spite of this worldwide
economic recession, we have paused to realize that there are actually
lots of people who are interested in Japanese art in the world.

Now, senator Barack Obama assumed the presidency of United States the other day.
Most of Japanese including myself have happily welcomed this news.

This is because, under the huge controversy, Japanese government
dispatched Jieitai(the Self-Defense Force), Japanese military that is
banned to attack to other countries under the Constitution which
prohibit concerning any war without "self defense" , to Iraq during the
Bush administration.

Even though most of Japanese were skeptical about the invasion of Iraq,
the then Prime Minister Koizumi actively promoted the support toward
United States, as he politically and instinctively considered that
Japan would not be able to survive without the backup of United States.

Basically, Japanese rather wish to get along with as many countries as
possible and are poor at acquiring enemies. Surely, Japan internationally
experienced the several huge wars against foreign countries in the 20th
century. Also, we nationally went through power struggles and civil
wars until the 16th century. Nevertheless, it is well known that
Japanese are characteristically calm and prefer the harmony.

-----***-----
Segawa Tsuyahisa (Enkyu)'s Beauty,hanging scroll,colors on silk
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/109001900/
**The woman mysteriously standing alone has a figure of madness like
shown in her vacant-looking eyes.

Miki Suizan's Beauty, hanging scroll, colors on silk
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/109002900/

Original Books of Katsushika Hokusai's Manga prints in 19th century.
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/search.php?md=0209
**You can see Hokusai's painting philosophy that anything could be drawn
by composing simple patterns.
-----***-----

Of course, we want to construct better relationships with Arabic countries.

The president Obama mentioned that he would place a great emphasis on
dialogue and mutual respect in the international relations. Japanese
are relieved about American attitude, which acknowledges the mistake of
the Iraq war.

I think that this point is really important. That is to say, the
cross-cultural communication cannot work out without the mutual respect.

In reality, since the 19th century when Japanese started to contact
with the modern Western culture, and even more after the World War II,
we have internally had the inferiority to the Western culture.

While Japanese cultures such as Zen, Bushido and Art are sometimes seen
with adoration from the other countries, Japanese rather yearn for
western cultures and make light of our own cultures.

However, it should be essential to understand good aspects of our
cultures by us and make people in Asia, Western cultures and the other
countries aware of them.

We expect that our items will play the important role as an ambassador
to extend the attraction of Japanese culture.

-----***-----
We are editing now newest catalog "Japanese Art Catalog Shukado vol.18 "which
introduce more than 50 artworks.

Now subscribe to our catalog membership or request a trial one(vol.17)!
https://www.syukado.jp/en/catalog/

-----***-----

See you, see you maybe next week!

**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/

Shukado Newsletter No.21 New catalog and a heartwarming story

2008-10-14T03:56:00.004+09:00

Hello this is Chiaki Tanaka
Following article is the last edition of our newsletter by Mrs. Ikuko Kelly as an our staff. She is absence because she must prepare for baby birth.
Please read her last newsletter:

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

Dear Customers & Friends

Hello everyone! This is Ikuko sending a Shukado news letter No.21.

In this week, Shukado published our NEW catalog "SHUKADO vol.16"
If you want to receive our catalog please click here!

***********
NEW CATALOG: http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/100000012/
We are waiting for your requests and orders!
***********

The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and the issue on stained rice is the
popular news here in Japan. Unfortunately, there are so many bad
news in this world, so today, I'm going to deliver you a heartwarming
story about Ukiyo-e.

In 1960's, about 40 years ago, Japan's economy was just in the
beginning of the high-growth period, and one dollar was equivalent
to 360 yen. Today, one dollar corresponds to about 105 yen, so it
the currency has tripped! It was so difficult to go abroad at that
time.

At that time in Kyoto there was a one young student who dreamed to
study abroad in a western country. She worked at SUKIYAKI resturant
where a lot of foreign tourists visited, and she tried to speak
English with them. She enjoyed the exotic air they'd brought with
them. Thus, her dream of going abroad was becoming bigger and bigger.

One day, she happened to be able to get a scholarship to study in
America. Finally, her DREAMS CAME TRUE!!

This news spread rapidly in her neighborhood. Today, most of
Japanese can easily go abroad, and there are a lot of Japanese
people who traveled abroad. But at the time, only a few people went
aboroad. So her neighbors' reaction was definitely normal. Finally,
the rumor spread out of her neighborhood.

One day, a gentleman whom she didn't know visited her holding a
piece of Ukiyo-e in his hand, and said. "I heard you are leaving
for the States alone. Here is "Ukiyo-e", but this is worth money in
which you can use in any country. If you have a financial trouble in
the States, I am sure you can sell it and earn money to help you."

She was so surprised and very glad. Her concerns were gone, and she
was so encouraged. Thus, she carefully put the Ukiyo-e in her
luggage and left for the AMERICAN DREAM!!

About 40 years past since then. In such busy days, she had
completely forgot about the Ukiyo-e offered by the gentleman, but
one day in a few years ago, her eyes caught a poster on the
street in Kyoto. The poster announced an exhibition to be held by
an Ukiyo-e collector living in Kyoto. As soon as she saw the name,
it reminded her of the incident that happened to her 40 years ago.

"He is the gentleman who gave me the Ukiyo-e before I left for the
States!" Without her knowing, the man had become a successful
collector who could hold such exhibition.

She wanted to see him again, but unfortunately she couldn't.
Because he arledy getting over 90 years old. She was un certatin
if she could remrmber where she saw the ukiyo-e last time.

Actually, this girl is my mother. She got married in the States,
came back to Japan and raised three children. Also she worked as an
interpreter and English teacher. She told me the story just a few
days ago. We suppose my father might have sold the missing ukiyo-e
in the USA where he began his life with my mother.

My parents used to say living in the U.S.A had been financially so
hard for Japanese young couples in 1960s. They didn't have much
money to buy a car, so they used a shopping cart to bring groceries
back home.

Nevertheless, they said America before the Vietnam War was so bright
and powerful. They often said it's like a dream country when I was a child.

I worked at Shukado gallary, so I see ukiyo-e everyday, therefore,
Ukiyo-e has become a part of my daily life. However yet, sometimes
it reminds me of my mother's story in which it might encourage
people and even help their life.

Today, we have other ukiyo-e up on our site.

**New Arrivals:
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/search.php?md=0929

How about giving an Ukiyo-e to someone who is leaving your country
as a memory. Even now, Ukiyo-e is a kind of global currency. But
First of all, we would be so happy if you could find your favorite
item in our wide range of collections.

Thank you for taking your valuable time to read our news letter No.21
until the end.

I must say thank you to everyone who read our newsletter. I will take
maternity leave from October and I will come back maybe next spring.

And finally, I would like to take this opportunity to say big thank
my wonderful and lovely co-workers from bottom of my heart who have
always helped me at Shukado.

*Shukado staffs:
http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=shukado

It's been real FUN flying with my co-workers.

Your continued support to Shukado will be greatly appreciated.

See you everyone!

Ikuko Kuwata-Kelly

Our Latest　Catalog was released

2008-09-26T08:09:00.003+09:00

Good morning, today I will participate a dealer's auction of pottery and porcelain.

By the way,our latest catalog was released and we recieved some orders this week including byoubu(folding screen). Some works are very popular and will be sold out quickly, so please order faster.

Subscribe to our Catalog "SHUKADO" vol.16 Autumn 2008 today!!
https://www.syukado.jp/en/catalog/index.html

New

2008-09-23T23:57:00.002+09:00

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-japan23-2008sep23,0,1022282.story

Taro Aso was elected as a president of Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and a prime minister of Japan.
But he must be very short relief leader because we Japanese people strongly want to let him to dissolve a lower parliament and call a snap election.

Economical situation across the globe is very bad, but political situation is worse than it in Japan.

Shukado Newsletter No.20

2008-09-23T23:41:00.002+09:00

Hello everyone! This is Ikuko sending a Shukado news letter No.20.

Shukado today in one word:"BUSY". BUSY, BUSY and again BUSY!!!
The summer break is over and now we are busy preparing for the publication
of our new catalog to be issued this week. We Shukado is busy preparing
for the art fair next month. Autumn is the best season for art in Japan.
We will do our BEST for it!

When I hear "art fair", the art fair in Moscow that I visited last
June comes to my mind. " Many celebrities and a Gorgeous atmospher "
says it all for this art fair.

**President blog: http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html
You can read our news letter about Moscow art fair here. Click now!

Moscow is a city I used to live. However, today's current situation
and the situation in the 90's in Russia are comletely different. I
can't believe today in Moscow a "million fair" where every elavolate
item is listed as a million dollars is popular.

I can communicate both in English and Russian, so if you feel more
comfortable communicating with us in Russian, please feel free to
contact us in Russian.

Anyway, I promised in our news letter No.17 to buy some interesting
items in the ukiyo-e market. At the previous ukiyoe exchange market,
we were able to finally win the bid for Kiyochika’s war prints and we have
it at Shukado now!

**Our New Arrival of Kiyochika: http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/search.php?md=0917

There were so many ukiyoe prints listed for the bid. My boss and I
had the same strategy, so we won the bid for Kiyochika's work.

I would like to talk about Kiyochika in this news letter.

Kobayashi Kiyochika was born in Edo in 1847. He studied photographs
under Shimooka Renjyo, oil paintings under British artist, Charles
Wirgman and Japanese paintings under Kawanabe Kyosai and Shibara
Zeshin. However, he was basically a self-taught painter. He pursued
his own artistic expressions after occasionally studying under
great artists.

He gained his fame when he created a new genre of western style
woodblock paints called “Kousen-ga” which employs introducing
western perspectives and shading to express moving light and shade.
To say it briefly, he tried to depict landscape or objects in
western style with the method of woodblock printing.

Even though you do not know about Kiyochika, many of you probably
know about artworks of Impressionist artists. If you imagine if
someone were to create woodblock prints of such artworks, you may
think it is impossible. However, Kiyochika did his best to follow
the style of Impressionist artists. He captured visual features of
the light and shade and changing light and colors in details, and
introduced new techniques to skillfully depict texture of the
objects in his artworks.

If you take a close look at Kiyochika’s artworks, they would look
as if they were the wood block prints created by Impressionist
artists who were good at depicting natural lights, change of colors
and contrast between light and shade in details. It is an
interesting fact that the French Impressionists’ Exhibition held
in France in 1876 coincided with the time Kiyochika showed his
Kousen-ga for the first time to the public in Japan.

When Japanese-Sino War began in 1894, the ukiyoe prints, which were
losing popularity, became popular again as one type of mass media.
Then many war prints were created by wood block artists and
Kiyochika was one of them. He created many war prints in 1894 and
1895.

Kiyochika’s war prints were not just print media to disseminate
news on the war. But also great artworks that evoke viewers’ deep
feelings and sorrow like what people feel when they see the
historical paintings. No other artists expressed people’s emotions
better than Kiyochika in the war prints.

He did a great job to depict details of the battle scene. To give a
few example:moving shadow of soldiers fighting in the sunset,
texture of the burning fire, very lively comprehensive composition
and fireballs flying in the sky. In particular, each fireball was
depicted so skillfully!! You will be surprised to see his techniques
when looking at such a print.

Please look at such detail of his work.
**More photo: http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list3/108003980/

I still clearly remember the day when I first saw Kiyochika’s
Kosen-ga at Shukado. Delicate gradation of light was so wonderfully
depicted by his printing techniques that I could not believe it was
possible with the wood block prints. It was a touching moment for
me.

It was a very special print being full of sentiments and I was
curious about who will buy this special artwork. One day an
overseas customer who dropped in our gallery in Ginza saw this
Kiyochika’s print and he was so amazed by his wonderful skills in
expressing light. Although this customer did not even know his name,
he bought this print and today he became a big fan of Kiyochika.

**Shukado Kiyochika's collection: http://www.japanese-finearts.com/sp/list.php?spid=S4759120b1fe83

Thank you for taking the time to read our news letter.

The beginning of the month we have many art market here in Tokyo.
Our chairman and director are trying to get new items almost every
day.

We will be very happy if you keep visit our site and enjoy shopping
with us.

We are looking forward to hearing from YOU.

Have a great week!!

Ikuko Kuwata-Kelly

Shukado Newsletter No.19 "Byobu"

2008-08-28T14:15:00.000+09:00

Hello everyone from Tokyo!!This is Ikuko, sending Shukado Newsletter vol.19

Tokyo, oh Tokyo, my delightful city!
Yes, I definitely love living and working here.
Have you ever been to Tokyo?

Today when I took a break for lunch I saw many overseas tourists
here in Ginza, Tokyo. Ginza is one of the wealthiest town in Japan.
The name “Ginza” is even a kind of brand name for Japanese
people. This area is also famous for numerous number of fine art
galleries in the vicinity of Shukado.

Please feel free to visit our gallery in Ginza when you get the chance
to come to Tokyo.

WE WELCOME YOU!!

*************
Shukado map:
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/aboutus.htm#map

*************

In this newsletter, I would like to talk about Byobu screen.

***********************
Sukado Byobu collection: http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list/38/

If you don't know what Byobu is, please check it out!!
***********************

Many foreign customers have visited us and asked to purchase "BYOBU".
So, most of our Byobu items are usually sold abroad.
I don't know exactly why they always ask us the same thing“I would like
to display Byobu on the wall!! ”

We, Japanese never display Byobu on the wall in the house.
In fact, I never see Byobu on the wall in Japanese houses. I of course know
we show Byobu on the wall of museums or international Art Fair for
international customers.

However when I see photos of displaying Byobu on the wall sent to
us by foreign custmers, I am so excited. It is a PRECIOUS thing to
see a spectacular wall decorated with Byobu in western houses.

Photos from our custmer →　http://www.syukado.jp/jp/voice/index.html

Byobu is a screen which consists of panels connected by paper hinges.
You can fold them as you like and they are light to carry; therefore,
they have been frequently used compared to before.

Some screens have 8 panels while some are not created as a pair.
The most popular byobu screens are “Ryokkyoku-Issou", a pair of
six-panel-screens. Most of the Byobu screens were created as a
pair of six-panel-screens. Each screen panel is counted "Sen" in
specialized terminology.

In the early ages, Byobu screens were used as a wind-wall to prevent
wind or cold air from coming into the room. They were sometimes
used as a divider as well. They used to be very practical items.

Byobu screens were used for various purposes. For example,
“Shira-e Byobu” which was painted with white pigments was used at
the time of baby delivery.The color white was considered very
auspicious so it was used for such an occasion.

"Sakasa Byobu" is used displayed Byobu upside down at someonen's death bed.

"Byobu for Summer" Some Byobu screens were designed particular for
summer season. They have bamboo blind in the middle of the panels so
that the air can pass through them. Summer flowers, plants and water
streams were depicted on such screens as well in order to make
viewers feel a bit of coolness.

In Gion, Kyoto, the custom “Byobu matsuri” where owners of stores
display their byobu screens has been a long tradition. It is said,
an owner of a store displayed a lot of byobu screens in order to
hide messy rooms from guests at the time of the festival. This is
very similar to how we put things into a storage space or we try to
hide them with a big cloth when unexpected guests visit us.

Byobu screens used to be very practical items for our daily life.
They have become more decorative in the later years since people have began
to think that they look better with beautiful paintings.

When did we start to display them at the art exhibitions or at museums?
I think that it began in the Meiji era.

There are two reasons for this. First, the new place “exhibitions”
where fine arts including byobu are displayed to show to the public
became prevalent from the Meiji era.

From the Meiji era, Japan tried to introduce Byobu to Western cultures
including exhibitions. Until the Meiji era, there was no such a
place or an occasion to display and appreciate fine arts in Japan.
Between the end of Meiji era and the Taisho era, it was very
popular to show big pieces. As big screen media, artists could
create paintings with a big visual impact. Byobu screens were often
used by artists. A pair of six panel screens (each panel is sized
approximately one tatami mat (1.82ｍ×0.91ｍ)) must have given big
impact on viewers.

Second reason is the change of people's lifestyle. Until the Edo
era, byobu screens were used in the houses of every walk of people
in Japan including nobles, samurais, merchants, etc.

However, after the Meiji era, people's life became westernized and
traditional Japanese rooms with tatami mats and alcoves gradually
disappeared.

Therefore, Byobu screens which were used with practical daily life
items became art media to be displayed at the art exhibitions. Of
course, some people still use Byobu for their practical use but
main use of Byobu changed in the Meiji era.

If you have a chance to see Byobu screens, please take your time to
imagine how they were used in old times.

Thank you for reading our news letter until the end and we will get
back to you soon!

Oh, WAIT WAIT! I must to tell you about our recomended Byobu.

*******************
Recomend Byobu item : http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107007350/

*******************

We are going to display this Byobu screen at the autumn exhibition
held by the Tokyo Bijyutu Club.

*Tokyo Bijyutu Club (Tokyo Art Club) is dealers association which is
highly recognized all over Japan as well as overseas.
Shukado has a membership with this association.

If you plan to visit Japan in October, please come and visit
us in Ginza and come to our exbition!
We are looking forward to seeing you there.

We hope you are enjoying the end of your summer in your town!!

Big hello to you from all of us at Shukado.

Ikuko Kuwata-Kelly

Shukado Newsletter No.18 Hanabi!

2008-08-08T20:45:00.020+09:00

Dear Customers & Friends

Hello!! ...from Ginza Tokyo.

This is Sachiko, sending Shukado Newsletter vol.18.
It has been extremely hot in Japan these days and we sometimes have thunder storms in the evening. My 5-year-old son is so scared of lightening and says "Kaminari-sama (god of thunder) is angry! "

Let me introduce our latest recommended items. Those prints are reasonably priced for their quality and we hope that you will find your favorites among the new arrivals!
*******************
New Arrivals
*******************
Ukiyo-e Prints
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/search.php?md=0806

We are featuring Toshikata and Chikanobu in the above link.

In the Meiji period, Japan went under the drastic westernization so the ukiyoe or woodblock prints became less popular than lithographs or photographs. But Chikanobu took effort to depict the lives of women in Meiji era. When we take a look at his prints, we even now can feel powerful and lively atmosphere of the Meiji era
Although "Bijinga" or genre pictures of beauties was major theme of Ukiyo-e in the Edo-era, for example, Harunobu, Utamaro.�@Ukiyo-e legend or legacy was almost dying in the middle of Meiji era.

In that period, TOSHIKATA Mizuno tried to preserve Bijinga tradition and to hand it down to the next generation. One of the pupils of Toshikata is Kaburagi Kiyokata, the most prominent Bijinga painter in the Japanese art history. Chikanobu is famous for painting rather than woodblock prints, so Chikanobu and Toshikata are the artists who connected the traditional Japanese art and the Japanese modern art. Toshikata was the first artist who revived the big Bijinga wave again in the Japanese art world.

Don't forget to check our latest arrivals!

***********************************************
Hanabi :Big Summer Event in Japan "Tamaya!"
***********************************************

By the way, if you hear "summer" and "Tamaya! Kagiya!" what would you think of? Japanese people would answer "Hanabi" or fireworks. The Japanese word for fireworks, "hanabi" is made up of two kanji characters; "hana" for flower and "bi" for fire. Every summer Japan prepares for its numerous fireworks festivals held throughout the nation. When I was in England, I felt a bit strange to see a lot of firework displays held in WINTER! A friend mine Koichiro Noguchi san took a nice picture of firework display held in Gifu.

Gunpowder the material of fireworks was invented in the Tang dynasty China. Then it was spread in Muslim countries then in Italy and other European countries.

It is said that first firework display in Japan was held in 1613 in order to entertain Tokugawa Ieyasu. During the peaceful Tokugawa shogunate reign, fireworks spread all over Japan and they were developed into various types.

Among of all, RYOGOKU firework display is the most famous and many ukiyo-e based on this event were created in the Edo era. Many of you may have seen Hiroshige's "Fireworks in Ryogoku".

I found an interesting print depicting Hanabi and beauties created by Hiroshige II and Toyokuni III.

Unfortunately, we do not have those prints in our stock right now but we will post them at our website as soon as we get them. Please keep checking our website!

Many of fireworks (even today) have been manufactured by the same families who began making them generations ago. Tamaya and Kagiya were two major firework manufacturers in the Edo period that made fireworks for the Ryogoku firework display.

Thank you for reading our news letter until the end!

Have a wonderful week!

Sachiko

Shukado Newsletter#17

2008-07-31T11:58:00.000+09:00

Dear Customers & Friends

Hello! Bonjour! Guten Tag! Goedemiddag! Konnichiwa! from Ginza Tokyo.
This is Ikuko, sending Shukado Newsletter vol.17.

July is already over and the hot weather has arrived in Tokyo.
In this week, we Shukado published our NEW catalog "SHUKADO vol.15"!!
If you want to receive our catalog please click here!
We are waiting for your requests and order!

************
NEW CATALOG :http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/100000012/
************

Today, I would like to introduce you to the artist who pursued the
beauty of color-on-paper artworks: KOSUGI HOUAN. In addition, we
talk about how attractive art works are on paper.

**********************
Kosugi Hoan "A Witch": http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000420/
**********************

There are two major kinds of Japanese style paintings: color-on-paper
and color-on-silk.

Although most of Japanese style painters paint on paper these days,
color-on-paper artworks became popular only recently. It used to be
considered that color-on-silk artworks were ranked at the top and
they are still very expensive. On the other hand, color-on-paper
artworks are less valued than color-on-silk artworks.

However, color-on-paper artworks have their own attractiveness.
Sumi ink(Indian ink) can spread smoothly on paper and pale tone colors
stand out there. Moreover, the beauty of running ink can only be
made on paper.

Now I will talk about Kosugi Houan. He (1881-1964) was born in
Niigata prefecture, and he first became a western style painter then
later switched over to be a Japanese style painter.

Around 1935, he began to use custom-ordered paper called "Houan
Paper", which was invented by paper artisan in Imadate, Echizen
(currently Fukui Prefecture) solely for Houan. Imadate is very
famous for high quality handmade WASHI (Japanese paper).

While the most widely used fiber plant for Washi is the paper
mulberry (kozo); this paper and the mitsumata and gampi plants
account for almost all traditional Japanese paper. Hemp is mixed
into those fiber plants to create Houan paper. As a result of this,
the surface of the Houan paper is rough and ink or colors easily run
on this paper; therefore, it is extremely difficult to control
painting effect with this paper.

Despite these difficulties, Houan skillfully controlled ink and
colors on this paper by using a dry brush. He gracefully and
competently used the effect of running colors and ink to create
forms. As a result of this, he mastered painting sold, and firm
shapes and creating a natural feeling even though it was extremely
difficult.

Therefore Houan's artworks have some kind of "lightness" or
attractiveness. I sometimes find some of his works on Houan paper
too blury but the ink and colors are part of their charms. He was
able to create an effect called "kegaki" which means fine, thin
bush-strokes employed to depict animal fur or human hair,
especially sideburns, beard, or eyebrows. If you are someone who
enjoys this kind of accidental effects, you will be able to find a
joy of appreciating his artworks.

The advantages of color on paper artworks are fascinating
effects of ink and color pigments and direct reflection of the
artist's personality and techniques. I believe comparing
color-on-silk artworks to color-on-paper artworks reveals the
artist's true self. I recommend you to see your favorite artist's
color-on-paper artworks.

In addition, you can not appreciate even half of the delicate
details of the color-on-paper artworks without seeing the original
with your naked eyes. Therefore, if you encounter the actual
color-on-paper artworks of your favorite artist, you will be filled
with indescribable happiness.

Please look at such detail of his work on paper.
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list3/108000420/

Thank you for reading our news letter until the end! Today we will list
some ukiyo-e of Chikanobu and hanging scroll of Uda Tekison. We are
very happy if you could find your favorite new arrivals among them!

************
NEW ARRIVALS: http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/search.php?md=0725
************

We will join a ukiyo-e market next week, I have a hunch that we can
purchase some interesting items there, so please DON'T FORGET
to browse our site again!!

SMILES to you from all of us at Shukado.

Have a wonderful and amazing day!

Ikuko Kuwata-Kelly

hukado Newsletter Vol.16 My First Trip to Moscow #2

2008-07-02T18:48:00.005+09:00

***** Shukado Newsletter Vol.16 My First Trip to Moscow #2*****
***** http://wwww.japanese-finearts.com/ July 2nd,2008 *****

Dear Customers and Friends,

Hello! This is Chiaki sending Shukado Newsletter vol.16. Let me continue the story on the Moscow Art Fair.

The word "gorgeous" says it all for the Moscow Art Fair. Every thing was so gorgeous including its entrance, booths and visitors there. The booths were very big comparing to those at Art Fairs in Japan and they even had proper pillars, walls and the ceiling. They looked more extravagant than those of the Asian Art Fair in NY. There were so many people in the expensive clothes and I heard that a princess from somewhere and a Russian billionaire paid a visit there.

http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/shukado/MoscowArtFair2008Public

You can easily spend a couple of hours by just looking at beautiful Russian ladies passing by. All of them looked like fashion models with long legs and beautiful looking wearing the latest fashion items. After seeing them, I could understand why so many men leave the wife to whom he has been married for years and go after young Russian ladies.

At the Art Fair, there were not so many booths selling contemporary arts while a lot of antiques and modern fine arts were exhibited. My relative and friends participated in this Art Fair from Japan. They were exhibiting modern paintings, paintings of active artists and antiques including Byobu screen and their booths were drawing people's attention.

It is rare for the Japanese art dealers to participate in the international art fair abroad, in particular in Russia. It was their first time participation in the Russian art fair. They have not decided whether they continue participating in this art fair in the following years. May be some years later, Shukado may have a chance to participate in such an overseas international art fair in Moscow, NY, London or somewhere. If such things happen, we are looking forward to seeing you there!

In the basement floor of the art fair, there were booths exhibiting jewelries. This floor was full of dazzling glitter. Although the atmosphere was full of flamboyance, I was a little bit scared of the uncontrollable desire of human beings and the probable connection to the underworld.

On the second day, I went to the "gorgeous" supermarket before the Art Fair began. (see the image at the president's blog) Although I could not find cans of real caviar, I enjoyed tasty dairy products. (I heard that only high-ranking government officials have access to this expensive delicacy via a little bit dodgy connections.)

While nouveau riche oligarkhi people are enjoying the rich lifestyle, I wondered how ordinary people's life has changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. When I walked around in Moscow, I found that people are quite friendly though they do not smile do often. I thought that they are good at building trusts with other people in a short period of time. I also heard that even commoners have their summer cottages called Dacha and they grow vegetables there. I think that Japanese people should cast away their negative image for Russian people.

I asked the taxi driver how things have changed from 15 years ago and he replied to me that people in Moscow enjoying freedom in many ways but he is fed up with prevalent mammonism. He added that people were more laid back and some people may have been happier at the Soviet time.

Over all my impressions of Moscow was very positive. I think that if I can speak Russian, I would be able to integrate more into the local society.

Well, let me introduce our latest recommended items before I wrap up this newsletter.

*******************
New Arrivals
*******************

Beauties! Beauties! Beauties!

Ito Shinsui's Japanese Beauty
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108002000/

Ito Shinsui (1898-1972) was the pseudonym of a Nihonga painter and ukiyo-e woodblock print artist in Taisho and Showa period Japan. He led the shin hanga art movement which revitalized the traditional art after it began to decline with the advent of photography in the early 20th century.

Behind a bamboo blind, a modern woman who had a perm is depicted in the image of cooling herself in the evening.
For her hair, vague painting style is used and this seems like Shinsui's consideration not to loudly show modern elements.

More beauties:
Ogawa Uko, Maisen/ A Graceful Japanese Beauty Dancing with a Fan
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108001600/

Komura Settai, Tsukuba, A Fan Print of a Cool Beauty
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108002590/

That is all for this week.

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

Have a wonderful week!

Chiaki Tanaka, President, Shukado Co., Ltd.

**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/

Shukado News Letter No.15 Moscow#1

2008-06-26T01:11:00.002+09:00

***** Shukado Newsletter Vol.15 My First Trip to Moscow *****
***** http://wwww.japanese-finearts.com/ June 25th,2008 *****

Dear Customers and Friends,

Hello! This is Chiaki sending Shukado Newsletter vol.15. I was away from office earlier to see the Moscow Art Fair.

After the Soviet Union collapsed about 15 years ago, Russia went under the political and economic turmoil then recently it is enjoying rapid economic growth.

Among the inbound overseas tourists in Japan, Russians and Chinese tourists are dramatically increasing and now we cannot ignore their economic impact.

I had been longing for visiting there to see what is going on in Russia where once people suffered from the food shortage after the collapse of its economy but now they are enjoying glorious economic growth.

As our staff Ikuko-san had been in Russia for many years in the past and I heard about my relative's company, Shibunkaku's participation in the Moscow Art Fair, I decided to see the fair with my own eyes.

On 31st May, I arrived at the Sheremetyevo II airport in the evening and my adventurous trip began with a lot of surprises.

I had heard Sheremetyevo II is one of the worst airport in the world. ...That was exactly truth. Genarally, most international airports are very modern and well designed for the natinal pride, but this airport is rather a kind of prison...dirty and unfriendly. But that was expected from the first, so I did not be surprised. Fortunately quickly finished the passport control,passed away unlicensed taxi drivers surrounding the passengers,we quickly walked and got on a taxi which we reserved through a travel agency.

Let me start with my trivial surprises I experienced in Moscow. Those things are so trivial that they would not be taken up by media but I found that they are very impressive.

My Trivial Surprise 1: Snow in Moscow in June?
When I saw white things piled up on the ground, I thought it snowed in Moscow even in June. But they were not snow! They were fluff of Poplars. Many of Muscovities are allergic to them. They can be seen in early summer.

My Trivial Surprise 2: The Speed of Escalators
I was surprised by the speed of the escalators in Moscow. They were so fast that my feet were nearly carried off by the step of the escalator. I have never seen such fact escalators in other countries I have visited.
Guessing from this, I believe that Moscovities must be the most impetuous in
the world.

My Trivial Surprise 3: Everything is so BIG!
Everything in Russia is so big. The buildings are enormous and ceiling and a door are so high. When I stayed in a hotel there, I was impressed by the height of the ceiling and the gigantic door. Although I did not measure their sizes with a scale, I guess the ceiling seemed to be nearly 4 meters high and the door 3 meters high.

Before I went to Russia, I was wondering why Russian billionaires always want to have extremely large rooms and use helicopters. After my visit to Moscow, I found that such acts are coming from their surrounding environment.

My Trivial Surprise 4: Unlicensed taxis
Unlicensed taxis is very general in Moscow. People in Moscow could go everywhere by lifting a hand by the road to stop a car drived by a non-professinal driver. Then they negotiate him where to go and how much.
I heard this fact from my staff Ikuko, and it was felt very convenient for us and we could go to many places in Moscow by this way.

After encountering such surprises, I realized that I will not able to understand things without seeing with my naked eyes.

I would like to write details of the Moscow Art Fair in the next newsletter.

Well, let me introduce our latest recommended items before I wrap up this newsletter.

*******************
New Arrivals
*******************

Tanomura Chokunyu, Hana-jyu-shi/Flowes, Beautiful Nanping School Painting Scroll
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000660/

Tanomura Chokunyu (1814-1907) was born in Oita, southern Japan. He is one of the representative Nanga painters. Nanga is a painting style adopting some Chinese flavors.

He initially used the name Kotora then named himself Chokunyu. He was taught by his uncle of the Kano school, Okamoto Baisetsu and Tanomura Chukuden. Chikuden found his talent and he succeeded family name of Tanomura. Chokunyu made a great contribution to the foundation of the modern Nanga paintings.

This is a flower painting of the Nanpin school style, which is famous for beautiful shades and colors. This artwork is not a typical painting of Chokunyu's. He is the founder of modern Nanga and well-known for Indian ink paintings.

He created this artwork when he was 36. Details of flower petals are skillfully drawn with fine lines and the details of the flowers are decoratively and neatly painted. This artwork evokes viewers of the feelings of his passion for pursuit of different painting skills.

And More:
Kosugi Hoan "A Witch", Framed Painting
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000420/

Watanabe Seitei "Autumn Plants", Kakejiku Hanging Scroll
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108001740/

Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III), Genji-ko no zu Shii-ga-moto, The Tale of Genji, Ukiyo-e Print
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2.php?number=1080026104&spid=S4859fa81ea2c0

That is all for this week.

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

Have a wonderful week!

Chiaki Tanaka, President, Shukado Co., Ltd.

**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/

Shukado Newsletter vol.14. Westernization of Ukiyo-e and Megane-e

2008-06-09T02:15:00.003+09:00

Hello! This is Sachiko sending Shukado Newsletter vol.14.

Rainy season has just started in Japan. Rainy days make us feel a little bit down but colorful hydrangea lifts up our spirit. (see the photos of them at the president's blog)

Let me continue the story of ukiyo-e from the newsletter vol.12.

It is said that the massive flows of Japanese fine arts happened twice in the past: at the time between the end of the Edo Era and the Meiji era and just after the WWII.

Some people say (in particular Japanese people) that it is very pity to see so many great works of ukiyo-e prints can only be seen overseas. However, the bright side of the big flow of Japanese fine arts is that such wonderful pieces gave a big influence on the overseas artists and made the people overseas more interested in Japanese culture thus the recognition of Japan as a nation was enhanced through the Japonism boom.

Japonism boom gave a strong impact on artists such as Claude Mone, Van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Henri Riviere created "Les 36 vues de la Tour Eiffle" (36 Views of Eiffle Tour) as an homage to Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mt. Fuji.

Why ukiyo-e which was not valued so much could gain such popularity in other countries?

There seems to be two reasons for this.

First, the quality of ukiyo-e prints for their prices. People in Europe were surprised by the printing quality of ukiyo-e. The great team work among an ukiyo-e artist, hori-shi (wood-block carver) and suiri-shi (printer). If one of the three lacks in skills, great work of ukiyo-e can not be created. Despite their quality, ukiyo-e served as an entertainment for commoners in the Edo era; therefore their prices were set at a low range. Tokugawa shogunate also tried to restrict on their prices.

Second, it was due to "westernization of ukiyo-e". Ukiyo-e artists had already introduced western techniques of perspective in the 18th century. Although western style paintings were imported to Japan together with missionaries in the 16th century, only a few artists were influenced by them and Japanese artists did not absorb western techniques at that time. In contract with the boom of Nan-ga (Chinese style painting), Japanese people did not show much interest in western style paintings.

However, Megane-e boom changed this situation. Megane-e, a painting designed to be viewed through an apparatus, which further heightens an illusion of depth created became very popular among Japanese people. The earliest apparatus used in Japan is thought to have arrived in Nagasaki via China from Holland in 1718. Influenced by the megane-e, ukiyo-e artist Okumura Masanobu (1686-1764) created uki-e (floating picture) or kubomi-e using Western techniques of perspectives and shading. This was long before Maruyama Oukyo created his version of megane-e paintings. Masanobu's prints gave a big impact on the upcoming ukiyo-e artists including Hokusai, Hiroshige and others. Hokusai tried to re-create effects of shading and perspectives in his Hiragana Rakkan Series where rakkan is written in hiragana and placed with 90-degree turn to make them look like alphabets. (see the image of Hokusai's Kudan Ushigafuchi at the president's blog)

An ukiyo-e scholar Tadashi Kobayashi wrote in his book that this introduction of western techniques into ukiyo-e made a foundation of Japonism to happen in Europe. Kobayashi also mentioned that German resident physician and scientist Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (he disguised himself as Dutch) who stayed in Dejima, Nagasaki, commissioned Hokusai to create paintings depicting people in Edo because Hokusai used a lot of western techniques of perspectives and his paintings would be easy to be accepted by western audience.
For those two reasons, many ukiyo-e prints were exported to Europe and the US and accelerated by Japonism boom and the financial problems of the daimyo lords after the collapse of Tokugawa shogunate, big flow of ukiyo-e prints occurred in the Meiji era.

Yasumasa Oka wrote in his book titled "Megane-e Shin-kou" that while Ukiyo-e artists introduced western perspectives and shading to some extent (mainly liner-perspectives), they did not introduce modeling techniques and maintained flat two dimensional painting styles; therefore people in Europe found ukiyo-e prints very exotic but easy to absorb into their culture.

How interesting to know European culture and Japanese culture influenced each other despite geographical distance between them and ukiyo-e artists' and European artists' strong desire to introduce new things.

Well, let me introduce our latest recommended items before I wrap up this newsletter.

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

Takashima Hokkai, Summer and Winter Landscape (diptych)
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000600/

Takashima Hokkai (1850-1931) who used to be an influential geologist but later converted to a painter created this art work.

Hokkai introduced Japanese-style paintings in Nancy, France when he studied there and he also strongly supported Art Nouveau movement enough to receive the order of educational merit from French government in 1887.

Later as a painter, he flourished in center of Japanese painting circles while he studied in the United States as a scholar.
Although his water ink landscape is similar to Hashimoto Gaho, clear shading he used suggests modernity and uniqueness.

And more:
Imao Keinen, A Parakeet on a Pine Tree
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000610/

Otani Kubutsu's (Koen) Hanging Scrolls, Cock, Japanese Plum and Calligraphic Work
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000083/
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000092/
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000093/

That is all for this week.

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

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/

Shukado Newletter No.13 Saito Shinichi Exb.

2008-05-29T20:03:00.004+09:00

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

2008-05-19T00:20:00.009+09:00

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/

Shukado News Letter No.11

2008-04-27T21:35:00.006+09:00

Dear Customers & Friends,
Hello. Hajime Mashite. Dozo yoroshiku onegai-shimasu.

This is Sachiko Stone, Shukado sending vol.11 Shukado Newsletter.

It is the first time for you to see my name in this newsletter. Let me briefly introduce myself.

I work at Shukado. I am translating the contents of the Japanese Fine-arts.com with other bilingual staff. I live in an old town area of Tokyo called shita-machi in Japanese.

Tanaka shacho has been extremely busy these days so I am writing this newsletter on his behalf.

Making a change from previous newsletters, I would like to write about a beautiful scenic spot in Tokyo.

Although the Somei-yoshino cherry blossoms have already gone, Japanese gardens are full of seasonal flowers from spring to early summer. There are many Japanese gardens and parks you can visit in central Tokyo. When you have a chance to visit Tokyo on your business trip or for pleasure, it would be a good idea to visit such gardens and parks.

The word "niwa" as used today means "garden", although it first indicated a purified place for the worship of native Shinto spirits. Besides providing spiritual settings, Japanese gardens are designed specially to evoke emotional responses to the viewers. Audrey Yoshiko Seo writes: "(Japanese) Gardens reflect the attempt to commune and collaborate with the natural power and beauty of the divine. ---- The empathy the Japanese people feel for the forces of nature enables them to appreciate the fleeting quality of beauty or mono-no-aware, an acute and often melancholy sensitivity to things." She also commented: "In the Tale of Genji, Prince Genji builds a villa whose quarters correspond to the four directions associated with the four seasons. In each quarter of the villa he housed one of this favorite consorts and the garden of each woman's residence specifically designed to evoke the particular beauty and emotional qualities of that season."

This week, I visited "Kiyosumi Teien" in Kiyosumi Shirakawa, which is close to the districts of Ryogoku and Kinshi-cho in eastern Tokyo.
(http://www.tokyo-park.or.jp/english/park/detail_04.html#kiyosumi)

This park is a typical "Kaiyuu (circuit) style" Daimyo (Japanese feudal lord) garden created in the Edo period. The garden features sen-sui (garden pond or lake), tsuki-yama (hill garden) and kare-sansui (dry landscape garden) and is famous for beautiful cherry blossoms and other seasonal flowers including azalea, hydrangea and Japanese iris. Part of the parkland is believed to have been the house of Mr. Bunzaemon Kinokuniya, a famous merchant in the Edo period. In 1878, Mr. Yataro Iwasaki, a founder of the Mitsubishi group, bought this premise and built a garden for his employees and also for inviting important business guests. In 1932, the Mitsubishi group contributed this garden to Tokyo City, and after some repair work it was opened to the public.

It was very warm when I visited Kiyosumi Teien. When I entered the garden, I first saw the fresh green trees and the big pond. Although I could see skyscrapers in the distance, I felt very peaceful there. As I walked along the little walking path, I found so many turtles enjoying sunbathing on little stones. I also saw many beautiful birds, gigantic carp and pretty flowers. I also walked on the stepping stones paying my utmost attention not to fall into the pond. Uniquely shaped stones which were formed by the natural power were located along the path. Those stones were brought from all over Japan. There were little stone Buddha statues standing lonely in a dead end corner.

At the very end of the garden, I was struck by a lovely surprise. When I entered the space called Jiyuu HIroba, beautiful pink yaezakura blossoms came into my eyes! Yaezakura has more than five petals and blooms later than the Somei Yoshino cherry blossom. They were very gorgeous. In that square, there is a stone tablet inscribed with a haiku poem by Matsuo Basho "Furuike ya kawazu tobikomu mizuno oto (A frog jump/ Amplifies/ The pond's antiquity/ With its water sound)." Matuso Basho started his trip of "Okuno Hosomichi (The narrow road to the deep north)" from here.

You can see the beautiful pictures I took in the Kiyosumi-teien at the President's blog http://picasaweb.google.com/shukado/KiyosumiGarden

Kiyosumi Garden

After this wonderful walk, I felt a little bit hungry.

In the vicinity of the Kiyosumi Garden, there are some other nice spots where you can have a rest. You may have heard of the Japanese proverb "Hana-yori-dango", which literally means "Dumplings rather than flowers". This actually refers to the practical being preferred over the aesthetic.

Iseya (http://mpn.cjn.or.jp/mpn/contents/00002090/shop.html) is one of the best places to enjoy dango after a visit to the Kiyosumi Garden. Iseya started its business 100 years ago in this area.

There are cafes such as Sacra Cafe （http://sacracafe.com/sacra/index.html）and Jolly Job Dog Cafe (http://www.jolly-job.com/) within 5 minutes walk from the garden. You can enjoy beautiful organic food, sweets and coffee at Sacra Cafe and delicious Italian food at Jolly Job where you can enjoy your lunch or dinner with your dog.

Ummm... My visit to the Kiyosumi Garden ended up with "Hana-yori-dango".

I hope you will enjoy the nice pictures of Kiyosumi Garden on the president's blog.

I would like to wrap up my newsletter by introducing to you this week's recommended items:

---------------------------------------
Ukiyo-e Catalog just published !
---------------------------------------
We announce you Ukiyo-e catalog again;
Shukado Japanese Art Catalog Ukiyo-e special edition vol.1.
https://www.syukado.jp/en/catalog/index.html

We just started distribution of the catalogs.

Total 183 artworks are posted in this beautiful full color catalog of 44 pages with
detailed comments. It costs you ONLY 10 dollars . (via paypal : This is shipping fee)

Already we have accepted about more than 50 sets of subscription and more than 20 items of order.

Do not hesitate to subscribe:
https://www.syukado.jp/en/catalog/index.html

If we post the catalog to the address in Japan, shipping cost will be free.
In that case,you can subscribe here: (Japanese page)
https://www.syukado.jp/jp/support/catalog/index.html or
Please order the catalog via e-mail: info@syukado.jp

*********************************************************
New Arrivals:
I would like to introduce some of our new arrivals:
*********************************************************
Kikuchi Keigetsu's modern woodblock prints
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107000351/
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107000352/
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107000353/
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107000354/

We proudly introduce very precious beauties of Kikuchi Keigetsu.

Kikuchi Keigetsu (1879-1955) was born in Nagano prefecture. His favorite subjects were images of beautiful women and historical character.

His lines of drawings represented very sensitive and noble spirit. His core job was just a real painter, but also produced rather small lot of woodblock prints.

Okay,that's it.

See you next 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/

Shukado Newsletter No.10, Masayoshi #2

2008-04-18T09:19:00.001+09:00

Shukado Newsletter No.10 from Japanese-FineArts.com
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/
Masayoshi # 2

Dear Customers and Friends,

Hello. This is Chiaki from Ginza, Tokyo. This is our 10th Shukado newsletter.

It has been five months since we opened our website
Japanese-finearts.com and we have received several complements for our
sales at e-Bay. Please check the link as below:
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=shukado&ftab=AllFeedback

We have also received a surprisingly positive comment from our
customer: "Words can't describe how pleased I am with book and
incredible service -Thanks!" by Mr. and Ms. Hauntmaster

We are very glad to receive such words of complement from our
customers. I believe that this is a result of extensive efforts made
by Ms. Kuwata who is in charge of customer relations and Ms. Kondo who
is in charge of shipping. I would like to seek our customers'continued
patronage.

By the way, let me continue the story of Nakamura Masayoshi.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
After Masayoshi left Nitten which is one of the representative art
organizations in Japan and was created as a result of the First
Ministry of Education Art Exhibition, he created a series of paintings
which challenged the existing concept of Japanese style paintings. For
example, he used fluorescent colors, which no other artists (not
limited to the artists of Japanese style painting) used for their
artworks, for his artwork titled "Rose" (this is one of our gallery
collections) and he sometimes painted people in a grotesque style.

Masayoshi created his own artistic style as if he were walking in the
wilderness.

This may be due to the effect of the sudden transition from
Impressionism to Fauvisme happening in the art history at that time.
However, there is another factor which is unique to Japanese art
circles.

First of all, "art" in Japanese writes "Bi-jyutsu" (literally means
technique of beauty). While art in English simply means to "express
something", art (Bi-jyutsu) in Japanese refers to the technique to
create "something considered to be beautiful ". In other words, people
in the Japanese art world were obsessed with the concept of "beauty".
Therefore, this trend was accelerated by the conservativeness of the
famous art organizations and nipped the buds of new ideas and talents
that grab the hearts of people.

This situation may have led Masayoshi to voice "Creativity means
ugliness". Since he believed that the art means to express people's
inner self, he had to challenge the existing value of "beauty" and
"art" in the Japanese art circles at that time in order to show
concrete examples through his artworks.

He even dared to say "You should not be too skillful." Even when
someone asked him "What should I do if my painting skill gets too
good?" he answered "If your skill is getting too good, you should quit
painting."

His passion for his revolt to the existing value of "beauty" and
devotion to express his inner self may have come from the fact that he
spent most of his life for fighting against his disease. He expressed
himself in his artworks after his extensive consideration of what was
essential for his limited time left for his life.

The other thing that Masayoshi made his best effort was to teach
children at his own art school. He may probably have found the true
"art" in children's artworks rather than in those of mediocre
professional artists.

One of his artworks we can introduce is here:
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107007120/

Here, the vivid colors are liberally used and it gave lively impression to this work.
Japanese Artists never have used poster paint, but with which he
challenged to create new style . That means he became a destroyer of
"Nihonga" or "Japanese Style".
------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Arrivals:
I would like to introduce some of our new arrivals:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Utamaro II, "Shiduka of Tamaya"from Yukun Jihitu-gaku Hinagata
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107008310/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>From the lettering above her head her name Shizuka and the store name
Tamaya are figured out. Her beautifully layered kimono and her delicate
hand on the collar are lovely. Next to Shizuka, her prentice accompanied
by her is depicted.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Good condition Triptych, Night Viewing of Cherry Blossoms by Sadahide
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000790/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Against back of the figures, cherry blossom trees are depicted here. To
the woman's kimono on the left " Genjiko no zu (diagram)" is studded
showing this is one scene of the Tale of Genji. For, "Genjiko" was a
game to choose a scent out of fifty four based on fifty four tales of
Genji and players guessed and answered the scent in reference to "
Genjiko no zu (diagram)".

Hope you have great week!

Sincerely yours,
Chiaki Tanaka of Shukado

**We are sending Shukado News Letter - the information of
new arrivals.
If you would like to join our mailing list, please visit here:
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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
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*Blogger site
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Spring has come at Toranomon, Tokyo

2008-03-25T17:56:00.000+09:00

Shukado News Letter No.9 Masayoshi#1

2008-03-19T07:10:00.008+09:00

Dear Customers & Friends

Hello from Tokyo!This is Chiaki Tanaka, sending vol.9 Shukado Newsletter.
It has been really warm in Tokyo for these days. Although until a week ago, we had to wear winter coats in the morning and evening, it is so warm today at noon that I have some sweat even without a coat. I guess that it is getting warmer in other countries in northern hemisphere as well.

By the way, we are now preparing hard copies of our "English Catalog". We have issued 13 volumes of printed Japanese catalogs and they have artist names and titles in English. Our upcoming English catalog contains deeper description of the artworks and smaller details in English.

Our wish is that more and more people know more about Japanese fine arts in depth.
In the 19th century, the first "cultural ambassador" of Japan to Europe was the crumpled ukiyoe prints used as packing materials. Ukiyoe's witty and extraordinary refined composition caught on people's curiosity towards unknown country.

On the other hand, I feel pity that Japanese hand paintings created after the Meiji period are not well-known to the people overseas. There are a lot of outstanding artworks created during the modern and post-modern periods.

Unlike our website, this printed catalog can be enjoyed while leisurely lying on the bed or the sofa in the living room. You can carry it in your bag and take it on the train, airplane or to the restroom. Please give us a request for this catalog. The catalog will be ready for distribution in April.

We have made the request form on our website, so please click the link shown below.https://www.syukado.jp/en/catalog/index.html

*******************************************
Well, this week's featured artist is:

This artist said "Creativity means ugliness".
This phrase sounds like Damian Hirst's, doesn't it? This artist passed away in 1977. He was a Japanese artist who lived 30 years ago and died at the age 57.
For the people, who think that creativity means art and art means beauty, his words may sound quite shocking.

However, he was a very serious person, may be too serious. In the Japanese art world of these days, many artists place emphasis on the "shocking impact" of the artwork rather than the "pleasant beauty". In a sense, he challenged this approximately half a century ago and no body else dared to do this with their artworks. Artists in the modern time, who are taking this challenge seems to have some sort of calculation. On the contrary, he committed himself so much in the quest for creativity just for its sake.

His name is Nakamura Masayoshi (family name, first name).

Japan's fine art associations in the post-war Japan were very conservative and may be it is still the case for them. Although fine art association's most important mission is to facilitate new art movements, in reality, similar artworks are repeatedly created within this association.
Nakamura took his courage to challenge this trend. Although he won the prize at Nitten (Japan Fine Arts Exhibition) and he became the youngest judge for this exhibition, he announced to withdraw his membership from them only after one year of his membership. He is a short tempered person; therefore, he was fed up at once with the unfair judgments by the conservative Nitten based on their nepotism or favoritism.

At his early years as an artist, his artistic style was very typical one for Japanese paintings in the post-war Japan. He had to do so in order to win the prize from the biggest authority in the Japanese art world to be financially viable as a professional artist. His artworks at that time are:
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/2008/03/bbbb-aaa.html#girl

After his withdrawal from Nitten, his approach to his artworks dramatically changes. For example:http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/2008/03/bbbb-aaa.html#maiko

He used to like calm colors in sepia tone and had extensive training as a Japanese painter. After a while, he challenged to break his old styles. In the traditional method of Japanese paining, pigments are mixed in animal glue called nikawa. Nakamura mixed artificial glue and fluorescent paint to use for Japanese paintings. Then he claimed that this is the true Japanese painting style.

It can be said that his artworks are not only objects for decoration but also the symbol of resistance against the existing authority or the declaration for the creation of new art.I would like to feature his life history in the following newsletter.

**************************************************

New Arrivals:
I would like to introduce some of our new arrivals:

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Katsushika Hokusai's Ukiyo-e Book "Bansho Zukou " #108000730
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Hokusai, as you know, was the strongest master of Ukiyo-e. His most well-known prints are "Fugaku 36 kei" or "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" which was created between 1826 and 1833. Since he initially led ukiyo-e world in the edo period, he published a lot of books of exemplary illustrations. This "Bansho Zukou" is one of his illustration books. Various kinds of people, animals and plants are vividly depicted in this book and every page is full of lively and spontaneous graphics.
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000730/
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Yoshida Hiroshi's Woodblock Print: Omuro in 1940 #107001930
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Yoshida Hiroshi(1876-1950) is one of the best shin-hanga (new woodcut print movement) artists in the middle 20th century. His prints are richly detailed landscapes and captivating art fans in all over the world.　The motif of this work is the big gate of Omuro which is famous temple in Kyoto. Light colors are used for the gate of the temple and these subtle tones create not only beautiful piled up shades, but also depth in this work.
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107001930/

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Abuna-e or Risque Scene by Eisen #108000770 and by Eizan #108000780
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Keisai Eisen(1791-1848) is a famous artist specialised in bijinga (woodcuts of beautiful women) . It is well-known that Vincent van Gogh reproduced Eisen's work in the work The Couresan(1887).Kikugawa Eizan (1787-1867) was an ukiyo-e painter and print artist, he worked at first for his father who was a Kano school artist.

Abuna-e captures glimpses of nude or partially nude females involved in everyday activities such as bathing, washing their hair, enjoying the cool of the evening, or putting on makeup. See the woks on the links below.
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000770/
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000780/

Did you enjoy our collections of Ukiyo-e? Hope you have great week!
Sincerely yours,Chiaki Tanaka of Shukado

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

*Ichiroya sitehttp://www.ichiroya.com/blog/Chiaki/

Shukado News Letter No.8

2008-03-06T08:39:00.001+09:00

Dear Customers & Friends

Kon-nichi-wa, hello from Ginza!

This is Chiaki Tanaka from Shukado,and this is vol.8 Shukado Newsletter.

For these 2-3 of years, it is said that Japan has been seeing the "Spiritual boom".

As a matter of the fact, a spiritual counselor, Hiroyuki Ehara and his TV program called "Oura-no Izumi" or "the Fountain of Aura" are creating this boom.

In this program, famous TV personalities and actors or actresses are invited as guests and their deep worries and traumatic experiences are revealed through his mediumship and he suggests the guests some clues to solve their problems.

At the time of his mediumship performance, Ehara talks about the personal details, which only the guest knows such as details of his/her room. This is the trick to make the viewers believe that he has some kind of special abilities. Moreover, he tells the guest about his/her previous life, numen and the color of the aura and explains that the current life is connected to the previous life. In the end, he mediates the words of the dead parent or relatives to give some advice to the guest and the guest finds the direction of his/her future.

The program seems to be very persuasive and famous actors or actresses appear in this program, therefore, the viewers are drawn into the program.

My younger sister is very quick to catch on a trend. We call this kind of person as "Mee-her". She is watching this program every week. I think that it is typical of her, but the program is quite interesting so I would not blame her for being a blind follower.

There are some people who criticize this program as a "made-up". Such people say that Ehara could know the private secrets from advance investigations and there are some rumors that he caused some violent incidents with the staff of the program. They point out that the previous lives of the guests are usually staged in Japan or Europe not in Africa and they find this very strange.

Some other people even give warnings for the danger of peoples' crazes for something unbelievable or extraordinary while saying that the Aum Shinri-kyo terrorist attack revealed that danger of desire or passion for such things.

The other day, one junior high school student who was refused to join in the group committed suicide saying "I want to re-born to seek better life". After this incident, Ehara was accused for his influence through the media.

Although I initially thought that he was a bit dubious, after reading his book, I could understand his thoughts of "inevitable fate" in his life. To be brief, he was not intending to be a professional spiritual counselor even though he had a special ability to see ghosts and people's aura since his childhood. However, his father died at his young age and his mother too when he was a teenager, then he came to think deeply about "What is the purpose of my life?" and "Why is my life so unusually difficult?" After a while, he came to a conclusion that people live to brush up his/her own soul, which is connected to his/her previous life.

His story telling someone's previous and present life seems to be a little bit inconsistent but it captures and touches people's mind or even makes people cry or appreciate their own lucky life. It is easy to say that that is a cheap trick for tears but simply fake stories cannot move people. Probably, his powerful speech backed by his heavily agonizing past or his fate touches people's mind.

Although I do not believe in "previous life" or "people's aura" at all and I think that some of his remarks are a bit doubtful, I agree with his comment "People live to brush up his/her own soul. I may have a little bit of spiritual way of thinking because I cannot explain theoretically about it, however, I believe that even when people face a lot of difficulties, if they believe that there is a fate created by God or something similar to God, people can be very strong in their lives.

The another reason why this kind of people can be popular and famous in Japan while some people point out the danger of craze for supernatural or extraordinary things is the lack of strong base of religions in Japan. Japan is categorized as a Buddhists country, there are numerous small Buddhist sects and 100 thousands of temples (the total number is similar to that of convenience stores) in Japan. However, as a matter of fact, Japanese people see them as the organization to run the funerals or take care of cemeteries. Not many people ask Buddhist monks for their advice. We of course need someone to explain why people experience unreasonable difficulties; therefore here comes the cult religions. "Millionaire wannabe" boom can be said as one of this kind of cult religions.

It is not a religion, but the love for the birthplace or the patriotism which were serving drives for Japanese people after the Meiji era when the existence of God became faint or fear for the invasion from other nation or the self-confidence as a reflection of such fear were all smashed away by the defeat in the WWII. Japanese people may be suffering from the emptiness in their mind while enjoying economic growth.

Looking at this from different perspective, new thoughts, religion and ideas which may serve good for the people in the world may spring from this place where the freedom of religious activities and speech is guaranteed and people are open minded about religions. Although such a situation may be unique to Japan, the negative effects of rapid modernization may be causing such a trend of spiritual boom.

What is the situation like in your country with regard to the issue of psychological problems and spirituality?

Before ending my news letter, I would like to introduce new items; the artworks of Utagawa Kunisada.

http://www.japanese-finearts.com/sp/list.php?spid=S474bd5a96dea4

We recently added a lot of Yakusya-e prints (Actors' portraits) created by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1864) at our website.

http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/search.php?md=0228
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/search.php?md=0229

They look cool, don't they? Kunisada's yakusha-e's impression is very distinctive and brilliant. High level of printing technique with detailed touch is used for those prints. While Hokusai, Hiroshige and Utamaro are globally well-known ukiyo-e artists, Kunisada was the most popular ukiyo-e artist in the late Edo era and probably was most prolific.

Ukiyo-e has been studied extensively overseas rather than in Japan. However, overseas scholars' focus of their intellectual curiosity had not been placed in Kunisada's artworks until recent times. There are some scholars who are now reevaluating his works. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunisada

Please take a look at the life history of Kunisada who created the foundation of ukiyo-e.

I hope that the readers of this newsletter will know more about old and new Japan through our newsletter.

See you next week!

**We are sending Shukado News Letter - the information of
new arrivals.
If you would like to join our mailing list, please visit here:
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backnumber:
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---------------------------------------------
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/

Shukado Newsletter No.7 Genji#3

2008-02-26T19:54:00.002+09:00

Shukado Newsletter No.7 Genji#3

Dear customers and friends,

Ohayo-gozaimasu, good morning from Ginza,Tokyo

This is Shukado Newsletter No.7 from "Japanese-finearts.com by Shukado".

Today I will continue to talk about the Tale of Genji or Genji Monogatari.

For these several years, Japan's imperial family has been suffering from some problems with their family affairs. The most serious problem is the Crown Princess Masako’s mental illness. She might have lost mental health after the wedding with the Crown Price Naruhito. The reason of her illness is said to be that rigid and outdated traditional rules of the imperial family puzzled the Crown Princess who used to be an intelligent and active diplomat agent before her marriage. But nobody knows the real reason.

Last week the top-ranking officer of the Imperial Household Agency made a comment at the press conference that the Crown Prince Naruhito’s family should pay more frequent visits to their parents, the Emperor and Empress, and make more opportunities that they could meet their grandchild, Princess Aiko. It was surprising that a mere bureaucrat advised the imperial family what to do and we could imagine there was a something serious problem happening in our imperial family.

On last Saturday, which fell on his birthday of 48 years old, Naruhito spoke to the media that he would try to increase their visits to the Emperor, but refused to talk further about it because, he said, that is their private matter.

Although, in my personal view, the problem of the imperial family does not seem to matter to non-Japanese nationals, most Japanese people are seriously concerned about the future of imperial family or of this nation. However, to tell the truth, when I was a teenager, I thought I do not have anything to do with the imperial family or imperial system of Japan, or I even thought that the imperial system in Japan was nothing but useless.

As I grew up, off course, I changed my mind. Because I came to know that Japan needs the imperial system to maintain its unity as a nation. That is the reason even General Douglas MacArthur did not destroy our imperial system. In Japan, the imperial family (or system) is still recognized as more important symbol of the nation of Japan than the Constitution of Japan or anything else.

The legitimacy of emperor is enhanced some cultural symbol. In another words, admiration for noble of royal dynasty is assured by imperial culture, which large people love. Very important one of them is The Tale of Genji.

The story and writing style of Genji is very beautiful, but the content is full of love and hate relations and crazy behaviors in a way.

The Hikaru Genji or “Shining Genji”,the main character, has so many love affairs that he seems to be in a kind of mental illness. But he does not think himself “fickle”, but faithful and caring.　 Actually, he gained popularity among women due to his honest and caring attitude and his exceptional handsome features make him even more attractive. Although in those days there was a practice of polygamy, his curiosity and obsession to women went too far and people around were perplexed by his behavior.

When I read the beginning of story, his love affairs seemed to be as a part of his follies of youth. But as the story develops, his behavior seems to be over the top. For example, he dared to kidnap his favorite noble girl called Murasaki no Ue to his house and married her, or he had a love affair with a wife, Fujitsubo, of his father, the Emperor.　Genetic father of the boy born to Fujitsubo was Hikaru Genji, but this fact was kept secret between Fujitsubo and him. After a while, the boy became the Emperor and Hikaru Genji gained his political power.

Such conducts which sometimes contradicted with his careful personality caused a lot of interpersonal conflicts including mental sufferings and jealous for his lovers, political jousting, political battle among imperial member, death of his lovers and acquaintances and escape to the priesthood. Reading through those dynamic interpersonal relations and the death of Hikaru Genji, readers see the subtleties of human nature through human’s infinitive desire with constant changes as well as the beauty of passions and humor. Every character appears in the Tale of Genji gets old and dies in the end regard less of how they live their lives. Even after Hikaru Genji passes away, the story goes on. This reminds the readers of the sense of mortality or “monono aware” which means the sadness, the fleeting beauty in life and nature and deeply takes roots at the base of Japanese culture.

In my opinion, the most notable thing with the Tale of Genji is that if this story were to be written as a modern literature, it might be a very grotesque story, but the writing style of the Tale of Genji is very subtle and nothing is depicted in a revealing manner. Various love affairs and strong passions are described through waka (Japanese poetry) and conversation through misu (bamboo blind) in a very indirect way. This makes a great contrast with modern films (e.g. Quentin Tarantino’s), which are full of violence. Although this story is very long and contains some odd episodes, in my view, its writing style gives sophisticated and beautiful impressions to the readers.

There are lots of paintings depicting some scenes of the Tale of Genji and the most famous one is the Genji Monogatari Emaki (the Picture Scroll of the Tale of Genji). With each painting, stories and emotions of the characters are depicted in a very suggestive way and tricks were made with them by the artists so that the people who do not know much about the story or children just see those paintings as pretty or nice.

A good example of this is our recommended item, the byobu (http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107006610/) depicting two scenes from the Tale of Genji. The left panel shows the scene of Asagao and the right panel Momiji-no-ga.

In the episode Asagao, Hikaru Genji let a child to play with snow in the garden and talk about the old stories to his young wife Murasaki-no-ue (a kidnapped noble girl). Hikaru Genji told her not to worry too much about his flirtation because she was suffering from mental illness from such behaviors. Although this scene of show play is usually depicted for this volume Asagao, it is not much to do with the main story of this volume. In the main story, Hikaru Genji fell in love with a lady called Asagao but he was dumped by her then this snowy scene comes next followed by his mother in law whom he had an affair with appeared in his dream and said not to tell their secret to her. Even though the snow man which the child made is nothing to do with the main story, it was often depicted in the artworks based on the Tale of Genji. The snowy scene looks very beautiful and heartwarming; however, the sufferings of Murasaki-no-ue are hidden behind this scene.

The scene of Momijino-ga is one of the most beautiful and gorgeous ones in this story. Hikaru Genji and his best friend Kashira-no-Chujo performed an excellent dance called Seigai-ha on the celebration of the Emperor’s birthday. Fujitsubo, who was pregnant with Hikaru Genji’s child, saw their rehearsal because she can not see it at the ceremony. Fujitsubo who was suffering from this secret saw his wonderful performance and was fascinated by his beautiful figure. His dance with outstanding beauty at the stage enchanted the most of audience and he gained his fame to be promoted in the Imperial court.

It is not sure whether the scene depicted with this byobu is the rehearsal or the actual stage, but seeing the little number of audience, this looks like the rehearsal. If so, the Emperor and Fujitsubo, who were viewing this rehearsal, are not depicted with some kind of intention. This artwork just focused on the beauty of the dance but it does not give the details of Fujitsubo’s sufferings or even her existence in the view.

This byobu’s painting emphasize just on elegant and pleasant feelings with dainty motif and for the people who do not know much about the story, they just see the gorgeous beauty in this artwork. This representation technique is a typical one to hide the complicated love and hate story of love affairs like the Tale of Genji to be subtly presented to viewers for appreciation.

I my opinion, the writing technique used by Murasaki-shikibu still has some kind of charm more than just writing a long story for us after 1000 years since it was created.

In Japan, we celebrate the Doll Festival on the March 3rd. This festival is one of the traditional events that tells the gorgeous scenes of the Imperial culture. In another words, it is a festival which transformed the world of Genji into a popular event.

It is fun to decipher what kind of traditional Japanese theme is actually expressed or depicted in such artworks. It is something like the Da Vinci Code that was in fashion a few years ago, isn’t it?

By the way, looking at the current royal family again, they are considered as role models for the Japanese national. Therefore, they may see their family issue is representing the collapse of the Japanese family system and feel anxiety. The Crown Prince refused to give details of the issue at the press conference saying “this is a private matter”. This remark gave unfavorable impression of him being irresponsible as a royal family member. However, there have been a lot of earthly stories such as political tactics and power struggles around the Emperor like the story of Genji and the Imperial system faced several crises after the Heian period. Current Imperial family also has their problems with modern issues. The Japanese people should be more relaxed to see their problems. The most serious issue for the current Imperial family is the succession to the throne and their legitimacy. I hope that they come up with a solution to this issue harnessing the combination!
of traditional and modern wisdom.

That’s all for this week!

See you next week!

**We are sending Shukado News Letter - the information of
new arrivals.
If you would like to join our mailing list, please visit here:
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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/

Shukado News Letter No.6 Genji#2

2008-02-17T13:46:00.001+09:00

Dear customers and friends,

Kon-nichiwa,hello from Ginza,Tokyo

This is Shukado Newsletter No.6 from "Japanese-finearts.com by Shukado".

It has been really cold in Tokyo. As for this year, it is said that it is colder in northern hemisphere than that of previous years. Last week, the news said that there was a snowfall in Afghanistan causing a serious damage for local residents. What is the weather like in your country?

About 80 days has passed since we opened our website. We are very happy to receive many purchase orders from many countries. As we expected, we have biggest number of orders from U.S. while we saw orders coming from Canada, Germany, Czech Republic, Spain, Austria, Holland, Switzerland, etc. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude for our customers. Thank you very much! I feel that this is the benefit of the age of Internet where we can exchange e-mail and trade with people from allover the world!

To our surprise, we have not received any order from U.K. and France. People from those two countries first discovered the value of Japanese fine arts in the old times. We are looking forward to the orders from customers in those countries!

By the way, let me refer to the continuation of my writing on “The tale of Genji”. I have been researching The Tale of Genji in order to write this news letter since last week. To be honest, I am puzzled to find out that the world of the Tale of Genji spreads in a massive scale like a little cosmos.

The Tale of Genji a very long novel consisting of 54 volumes or chapters. In addition to that, as the time passed, the story of the 54 volumes developed and expanded as if 54 children of Murasaki-shikibu had their individual children and, 1000 years later, numerous amounts of descendants are living in 2008.

For example, if you search “Genji” or “The Tale of Genji”with Amazon U.S., you will get quite a lot of hits. You will be able to find several translations, videos, games and more.

I also heard that, in France, a richly bound book of The Tale of Genji translation by René Sieffert with wonderful artworks taken from various kinds of The Tale of Genji picture books was published last year.
http://www.amazon.fr/Dit-Genji-coffret-volumes-monogatari/dp/2903656371

The overseas impact of The Tale of Genji has been seen around only about these 100 years. Not to be mentioned, in Japan, there are countless numbers of goods related to The Tale of Genji including manuscripts of the original writings, translations made in later periods, paintings and picture books depicting characters and scenes from the Tale of Genji. The images of the Tale of Genji are used as graphic designs for kimono and other products.

When Japanese culture and the source of power in Japanese politics are discussed, many people often mention that there is a “vacuum” or “emptiness” in the center. At the time of Murasaki-shikibu, the Emperor had a political power in Japan. After a while, “Shikken”or Emperor’s political advisors became de-facto rulers. Then Shikken’s reign was taken over by samurai warriors and samurai’s reign continues for about 700 years. However, in theory, the Emperor was always considered as a greatest political figure.

Some academians say that “The Tale of Genji” played a very significant role for the “story” or “illusion” of Emperor’s political governance. Although I have not looked this theory in detail, if I were to believe in this story, I, as a Japanese national, would feel very much like taking close look at The Tale of Genji once again.

It can also be said that “emptiness” also exists in the structure of “The Tale of Genji” itself. As I mentioned in the previous newsletter, its original manuscripts do not exist at present. Even direct manuscript of the original does not exist. Current “The Tale of Genji” was re-constructed from variations derived from manuscripts passed down from generation to generation surviving war fires.

By the way, the manuscript written at the time when The Tale of Genji was written looks like this:
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/2008/02/part-of-genji-monogatari-emaki-national.html

This is a part of scripts from “The Tale of Genji Picture Scroll” which was created in the area near the imperial palace in early 12th century and is the oldest existing manuscript of the tale. This scroll is designated as a National Treasure.

Although this script is written in very elegant and dainty Higarana or Japanese phonetic alphabet, most of Japanese people in the modern time can not read such writings.

Modern Hiragana consists of about 50 letters (the combination of 5 vowels of a,i,u,e and o and 9 consonants of k,s,t, etc. ). Since Hiragana was invented as phonetic alphabet writing by simplifying shapes of Chinese characters, there were several different letters for one sound. In the Heian period, there were approximately 300 letters with Hiragana. After a wile, in the Meiji era, the number of Hiragana letters was reduced to current number of 45 letters to be taught at schools. Since then, old Hiragana letters became obsolete and Japanese people became incapable of reading old scripts.

Even if you can read old Hiragana letters, it is extremely difficult to understand its meaning since old Japanese grammar is quite different from that of modern Japanese and the relations between a subject and a predicate is further vague with old Japanese.

Therefore, Japanese people in the modern time have double or triple obstacles in having a clear picture of original “The Tale of Genji.”

Despite its difficulties in understanding the meaning, don't you think the strikes of the writing look very elegant and beautiful? Calligraphic works from the Heian period are exceptionally beautiful. Therefore, even now, Japanese people appreciate their beauty and treasure manuscripts, scrolls and dankan (a piece of calligraphic work) created in this period. You can see such artworks in the museums in Tokyo and Kyoto.

From art dealer's view point, I would like to touch upon their market value. Beautiful calligraphic works from this period are priced around a couple of million yen (several tens of thousands US dollars). As for very precious ones, even a piece of such artwork is highly valued for a few billion yen (a few million US dollars). Unfortunately, it is prohibited to export many of such artworks (designated as National Treasures or Important Cultural Assets) by Japanese government. It is pity that overseas readers of this newsletter can not purchase them even though having enough money. But don't be disappointed. We are hoping to introduce you some super class calligraphic works from this period in the near future. Please wait for a little while until then.

Sorry, I went off the main topic. Let me get back to it.

To be honest, in reality, there are not many Japanese people who completely understand the content of The Tale of Genji. On the other hand, there are millions of modern Japanese translation, manga comics and paintings based on it. Additionally, various kinds of artworks in a wide range of genre influenced by the tale can be seen now. Therefore, it can be said that most of Japanese people are living unconsciously with the influence of its images and stories,

However such influential existences of the“Emperor”and “The Tale of Genji” serving as binding tools of Japanese people’s mind do not stand out in the society. This may be very Japanese phenomena that important figures are always low-key. In addition, Japanese people do not think so seriously about their main belief, “Buddhism”. While many people have funerals in Buddhist style, Christian style wedding is the most popular followed by Shinto or Buddhist style wedding. Although I sometimes pray for God, I am actually not aware of what sort of God I am praying for.

Making additional comment on the “emptiness” in the core, except Prime Minister Koizumi who had stayed in the office until last year, many of our previous Prime Ministers did not have strong leadership and their stints were very short. This may be due to the fact that Japanese people have temperament to avoid having a strong leader and, as a result of this, a low-key person always serves as a de-facto leader. I do not think this is a very good thing for Japanese politics.

I got off the track too much. I shall stop writing this newsletter here.

For your reference, this year marks 1000th anniversary of the compilation of The Tale of Genji and its anniversary symposium as well as exhibitions and lectures will be held this year. Please visit the website as below for more details.
http://www.2008genji.jp/iinkai/english.html
http://www.pref.kyoto.jp/2008genji/index.html

The topic of The Tale of Genji will continue next week.

**
We have Two NEWS.

News One: Shukado Catalog No.13 / Early Spring of 2008 Edition was just published last Friday!
Why don't you see that:
https://www.syukado.jp/en/catalog/index.html

News Two: Our staff, Ikuko Kuwata just married Smoky (American) YESTERDAY!
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/2008/02/ikuko-just-married.html

She is our customer servicer for overseas and also in charge of editing the Shukado Catalog, the latest edition of which was just printed on last Friday!

Please BLESS her and her new husband!!

**

Everyone, please take care of yourself in the cold weather. I also wish the people in the warm country their well-being!

See you next week!

Chiaki Tanaka

**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/

Ikuko Just married!

2008-02-17T13:15:00.004+09:00

Our staff,Ikuko just married yesterday. She is in charge of customer service for overseas,so usually contact you when you order our items with English or Russian.(She is very good at Russian language. She have been in Phillipine in her childhood for several years and also in Moscow for some years as a Ph.D. student of Russian art history.)

Why do not you bless them?!

Part of Genji monogatari emaki (National treasure of Japan)

2008-02-13T15:37:00.003+09:00

Shukado Newsletter No.5: Genji

2008-02-07T00:21:00.000+09:00

Dear customers and friends,

Kon-nichiwa,hello from Ginza,Tokyo

This is Shukado Newsletter No.5 by Japanese-finearts.com

Everyone, how is everything going with you?

Super Duper Tuesday is taking place in the US! Many Japanese people are watching how it is going with great interests. For my personal opinion, I would like to support Barack Obama as a Democratic presidential candidate, but I would like to find out more about him and to make sure whether he is truly a good candidate for US presidency for Asian countries including Japan. Although people in the world including US citizens must be fed up with the current accidental president, news candidates must have both positive and negative faces.

To change the topic, we had a sudden snowfall in wide area of Japan this Sunday.

I was staying at the hotel in the Miura peninsula on my family trip at that time. We had a first heavy snowfall (may be 10-15 cm high) after a while there since early morning on Sunday and I could not drive my car which I drove from home to the hotel. Then I had to leave our car there and returned home with my family by train.

This is the reason of delayed issue of this newsletter. However, never mind, there is a proverb “better late than never”.

By the way, do you know something about “Genji Monogatari” or “The tale of Genji”?

“The tale of Genji” is often referred to as the oldest long novel in the world. This story was written by one Japanese lady about 1,000 years ago. The readers of this newsletter may already know about this.

It is said that the author completed writing this story in 1008 so this year is the 1000th anniversary of its completion. Although I do not know details of them, I heard that various kinds of conferences concerning “The Tale of Genji” are going to be held in Japan and academics from all over the world will meet at the conferences.

”The tale of Genji” deeply takes its root in the Japanese culture. I believe that a “nation” and an “ethnic group” are brought together by some kind of “stories”. As for Japan, “Imperial system” under “the single lineage” is a typical one of those.

Like history of other countries, Japanese history witnessed continuous power struggle wielding military and political power and frequent turn over of samurai regimes. Although substantial reign of Japan had been held by samurai warriors between the 12th century and 19th century, even when bloody conflicts occurred, every head of the regime never tried to override the authority of “Emperor”. Also at the time of “Meiji Ishin” (Meiji restoration) when the samurai regime was replaced by the modern political regime, the revival of Imperial political power was the cause for the new government. Even when Japan was defeated by the US, Emperor Showa who was considered to be responsible for the war was not brought to justice as a war criminal and, in current Japan, the “symbolic Emperor” system still continues.

I feel that since Japan has not experienced annexation by other country, Japanese people do not have strong sense of national identity crisis and do not often
think about what sort of efforts they should make to preserve and strengthen their national identity.
However, from ancient times, politicians know that we need stories that everyone can believe in order to make them share the common philosophy of the nation and become its true “nationals.” Or it may be more precise to say that politicians believed the needs of the stories. The typical of them is the absolute Emperor.

For all of the Japanese people, the significance of Imperial or aristocratic reign can be found in the “Heian period” when the nationals enjoyed 400-years-long peace in Heian-kyo and its Imperial culture.

In my opinion, “Tale of Genji” is the epitome of this Imperial culture.

Although this story said to be written by a court lady called “Murasaki-shikibu”, the original copy of her writing does not exist now. Or even manuscript directly copied from the original does not exist either. From studying indirect manuscripts (copies of such manuscript), people guessed to reproduce the text of “The tale of Genji” that we currently read.

It is said that the story of “The tale of Genji” is divided into three parts: Part one where beautiful son of Emperor “Hikaru-genji” gains his political fame while he experiences love affairs with many ladies, part two where he goes through various predicaments and dies after his hard days and part three which tells the story of his descendants.

To be honest, I believe that only limited number of Japanese people have read all of the story with the book written nearly in the original form. It is a very long novel and various different versions of the same chapter exist. Even more, only one in 10,000 Japanese can perfectly understand old writings and grammar.

Therefore, many different versions of this story were translated in modern Japanese. Since the Edo era, the modern versions had been printed and even in modern times, many novelists wrote this story in modern speech. Even with such modern versions, they are very long so I believe that not many people have read through them. To tell the truth, I am still studying to read the entire story in original speech.

Although only a few people read the entire story, “the Tale of Genji” has a great influence on picture scrolls, ukiyoe, manga and other things representing Japanese culture.

Also, every leader of the Kamakura, Muromachi and Edo shogunate claimed that they are from the lineage of the “Genji” family, therefore the name “Genji” was used as the proof of their legitimacy. In current Japan, although people no longer openly refer to their lineage, “The tale of Genji” is the story of the “blood” which has been passed down for generations in Japanese society.

That is all about the “Tale of Genji” for this week. I shall talk a little more about the story next week.

Before my ending remark, I would like to introduce you this week’s recommended item.
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107006610/

Small sized byobu screens, which depicts some of the scenes taken from “Momiji-no-ga” and “Yuugao” of “The Tale of Genji.” They would look very dainty if they were placed in your room as partitions. They were allegedly created around the mid Edo period. How about decorating your room with those elegant screens?
I will explain the stories of “Momiji-no-ga” and “Yuugao” next week.

When you receive this newsletter, the result of the Super Duper Tuesday may be revealed. What will happen? Keep watching it!

Thank you for reading this newsletter to the end.

See you next week!

Chiaki Tanaka

**Backnumber of Shukado News Letter and president diary
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/
http://www.ichiroya.com/blog/Chiaki/
---------------------------------------------
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 site)
http://www.syukado.jp
master@syukado.jp

Shukado Co,. Ltd. site (Japanese only)
http://aojc.co.jp

Sudden strong snow

2008-02-03T22:22:00.000+09:00

Today I have been to " ichigo-gari "(strawberry hunting) at a small farm in Miura Hanto Peninsula. with my wife,two daughters,wife's mother and wife's brother's family. That is some kind of my duty to my family .. "kazoku(family) service".
We had stayed one night yesterday, but on the morning of today, we saw much snow was falling down outside the window! Soon after breakfast we tried to drive our car home, but then already there were too much snow on the ground around the hotel to drive, so we were compelled to leave our car at the hotel and go home by train.
Next week I must went there again and let our car move home. Sigh...

Shukado News Letter No.4: Appraisal,Shibata Zeshin,Return Policy

2008-01-27T22:57:00.000+09:00

Dear Customers and Friends,

Kon-banwa,good evening from Ginza!
This is Chiaki Tanaka, Shukado, Japan.

I am sending you No.4 Shukado Newsletter of Japanese fine-arts.com.

It has been really cold in Tokyo these days and we had first snow of this winter on Thursday this week. It was nice to see the snow falling quietly in Ginza. My two elementary-school-age daughters ware thrilled to see the snow when opening the door and they went out with a scream of joy.
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/2008/01/hatsu-yuki-first-snow-in-2008jan-23th.html

However, snowfall makes adults feel a little bit gloomy because we worry about delay or interruption of train service or getting hurt from slipping on the icy road etc.

In this week newsletter, let me talk a little bit about authentication and appraisal of Japanese fine arts. Everyday, we have clients who ask us to valuate their art pieces at our gallery in Ginza. People who came to know about us on the website or through introduction by their acquaintances bring scrolls or paintings in paper bags or furoshiki to us and they say that those art pieces are handed down from their ancestors or they bought them long time ago.

In fact, there are many art dealers among such visitors. To tell the truth, there are not many art dealers who are well versed with old Japanese fine arts; therefore, some professional people come to ask my father who has long experience and deep knowledge in this field for his opinion.

There are two steps of the artwork appraisal. They are artist identification and valuation. In the first step, we conduct artist identification to judge whether the artwork is a genuine creation of the artist. In the following step, we evaluate its current market value.

For modern or new artworks, we have stricter standard for artist identification. As for some artists, the artworks require certain appraisers who are experts of certain artists. For example, in the western fine art business, there is the only one effective appraiser gallery for each famous artist such as Picasso and Buffet. Like western fine arts, approximately 100 major artists of Japanese fine arts after the Meiji era, there are designated appraisers for each artist.

However, with most of the modern artists, experiences art dealers can identify whether the artwork is genuine or not and they can guess whether it can be authenticated or not.

　

With regard to the old Japanese fine arts, especially the artworks date back to the Edo period or before, there is no designated appraiser so each art dealer has to make their own judgment on their value. Nobody actually witnessed the artists from those times creating their artworks; therefore there is no “perfect” authentication that can be conducted with the modern artworks. With some artists, they created their artworks at their workshop working with their pupils and some of the artworks were actually created by their pupils then the master artists placed their signature and seal on them. Or as for some artists, they produced so many rough artworks that it is difficult to authenticate their works. The perfect truth cannot be found unless we go back to those times when artists created those pieces by a time machine.

　

Although there are a lot of difficulties for authentication of such art pieces, professional art dealers usually required making instant judgment with such matters harnessing their knowledge and experience.

As a matter of fact, quality and value of art pieces can roughly be judged from the boxes that come with scrolls or paintings. Old items usually are stored in the beautiful boxes with certain kind of modest and humble atmosphere (in Japanese called “Wabi”), which has some simple but elegant calligraphy, or they are often wrapped with classy cloth. The same thing can be said for modern paintings. Genuine paintings are carefully stored in the boxed made by the first class Hyogu-ya or picture framers. As for modern Kakejiku scrolls, they usually come with wooden boxes called “tomobako” with “hakogaki” (artist’s signature, seal and hand-written title of the artwork).

Although professionals can judge whether the artwork is genuine or not and its value based on such information, sometimes we make mistakes in valuation depending solely on it so we check the artwork.

With scrolls, sometimes I can judge its value from feeling its weight in my hand. If the scroll is too light, there is a high possibility to find it poorly created. Then I spread the scroll to check Hyogu or mounting. There are infinite varieties of fabric used for mounting but quality fabric can be identified on the spot. If quality fabric is used for the mounting, you can expect that the painting itself is valuable.

In order to judge whether the artwork is genuine or not, abundant knowledge concerning the artist’s painting style and his/her painting skills and techniques, but, in general, we can judge from the viewpoints whether drawings and colors are natural or not or we can see the elegant and dignified atmosphere. I often see the fake artworks that are intentionally created to look old. We can usually sense some sort of atmosphere from genuine art pieces. In addition, I check rakkan or artist’s signature and seal. As you may know, though it seems easy to copy someone’s writing, it is difficult to make a perfect copy of it. As for seals, it is possible to make a copy so we can not make judgment solely based on the seal for 100 % sure. However, the seal applied on the artwork can be a key element for judgment. Regarding some artists, we can identify the artwork based on the seal. Seals of Maruyama O-kyo and Ito Jakuchu have distinctive characteristics.

The most difficult genre of Japanese fine arts for appraisal is “Nanga”. “Nanga” is often used synonymously with “Bunjinga” to describe the painting tradition inspired by Chinese literati painting that flourished in Japan during the 18c and 19c. Scholars who were not professional painters created Nanga paintings. Since high skills that can be guessed from their intentional amateurism, elegant atmosphere and the beauty of imperfection are highly valued with Nanga paintings, there are so many fake works which copy their intentional poor painting styles. Ikeno Taiga and Buson are representative Nanga artists and many of their artworks were copied. There is a difficulty to determine whether such paintings are genuine or not. Of course, there are some artworks, which are valued highly while there are some works valued worthless but it is sometimes difficult to give valuation with some pieces for sure. Although art dealers should be able to value price of the work, there are some ambiguities for evaluating Nanga paintings. Also the other elements such as how it was made, the condition of the store box and its rarity value can effect its appraisal.

With older art works, the atmosphere and beauty of itself rather than artist’s name are important. It is not rare to find old artworks with no artist’s signature and seal. It may sounds ambiguous but art dealers have some sort of rules in their valuation so it is not so ambiguous as you may think.

Well, I think that I have written too long. I feel that some of the important things regarding this topic may be missing though….

By the way, there is an important announcement. We revised our Return Policy. In our old policy, like that of Ichiro-ya, it was written that we do not accept any return unless there is a serious defect or mistake. In Japan, people do not usually return their purchase. When we heard that it is very common in the U.S. to return purchased items, we worried about unexpected numbers of returns and huge shipping cost for accepting returning items; therefore we decided not to accept returns without certain reasons.

However, with regard to art pieces, we came to think that customers might be deterred to purchase items on line due to the risks of being rejected to return their purchase although the received purchase looks very different from what they thought when they ordered it. From my personal experience, it is rare to find claimers who make unreasonable complaints among fine arts lovers. Then we came to a conclusion to receive returns for whatever reason. Please check our website for more details:
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/index.php#return

I would like to end my newsletter referring to this week’s recommended item, an excellent scroll titled “Tigers” by Shibata Zeshin.
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107006640/

Drawing technique, composition and facial expressions of Mother and baby tigers are beyond my description. Elaborate painting touch with Tigers’ fur is exquisite. I would like Mr. Joe Price who is a famous collector of Jakuchu’s artworks to see this art piece.

Shibata Zeshin is a lacquer-painting artist. He is well known for his excellent skills with “makie”, a technique which originated in the Heian period for lacquer ware decoration in which designs are made by scattering adhesive metal or color powder in soft lacquer or directly on wood. He was very good at drawings and deformation of the painting objects. Along with Kawanabe Kyosai, he was one of the persons of exceptional talents between the Edo and the Meiji period when Japan went under the drastic cultural and economic changes. To be honest with you, this item is a really good buy! If this piece were to be listed on the Christies auction, it would be valued for much higher price. I strongly recommend this item to you with confidence.

Well, that is all for this week’s newsletter. Global downturn in stock price seems to hit the bottom. I hope that the global economy will recover soon and see the strong growth in this year’s market.

See you next week!

Mt. FUJI from ROPPONGI HILLS

2008-01-25T22:43:00.000+09:00

I could see the mount FUJI from a window of Roppongi Hills Tower this morning. I have visited the office of the tower once a week past a year, but it was the first experience. Perhaps the air was so clean,actually best in past 12 months, this morning.
Good winter day.

Hatsu-yuki, The FIRST Snow in 2008,Jan 23th

2008-01-23T21:37:00.000+09:00

The view in my hometown.

We got some snow this morning. Our two daughters, 2nd and 4th graders of elementary school, found the snow was falling and said in a loud voice, "Look at, look at! It’s snowing ! ",and flied out from the door to go to their school.

Since it was rather warm last winter in Tokyo, this winter is extremely cold for us who got used to the warm winter. We had very hot and long summer last year and we did not need coats in autumn. Actually we didn’t have the season of fall last year ,and real cold winter suddenly came in last December.

Winter is cold. This is no wonder with that fact. But these years we have not experienced the truly cold winter perhaps because of global warming.
I have not adjusted myself this cold winter, so I have bad coughs lately…

Snowing on the Dentsu-dori Street of Ginza from our gallery

Shukado News Letter No.3

2008-01-19T17:57:00.001+09:00

Dear customers & friends

Good morning, this is Tanaka Chiaki of Shukado, Ginza.
It's Shukado News Letter No.3.

These days,it is freezing cold here in Tokyo!

I recently went for golf with my senior of the art dealer. I started playing golf just a year ago, and I am a very beginner of it. Last time, I was criticized for my bad manner of playing golf, so I decided to go with my senior (he told me that he would teach me good manner,).

We went through, surprisingly, one and half round (27 holes)…it was really cold to stay outside. We were playing golf as if we were in a ski resort. We said by ourselves that here is not a golf course, but a ski resort in order to divert ourselves from coldness.

By the way, is golf famous sport in your country? For Japanese business people, golf is very popular and all mountains seem to be golf courses.
For example,I heard that the owner of Yahoo! Japan (and CEO of SOFTBANK corp.), Mr. Son , has his own super private golf practice machine at his home ,usually checks his swing with the machine ,and he now has acquired professional golf skill. I am wondering his friend, Bill Gates, also plays golf.

As for me, the golf score of that day was really bad as usual. You may figure out my score with the fact that I hit as twice much as my senior did and a lot of golf balls went missing in the ponds and among the trees.

It has already been one and a half months since our “Japanese Fine Arts.com” established. Thankfully, we receive orders from all over the world such as the east and the west coasts of America, Germany, the Czech Republic, Netherlands and Japan.

We did not have many hits on our website from overseas when our website was available only in Japanese. Through our new English site, I am surprised to see that many people all over the world including not only North American and EU countries ,but also Russian,North Europe and Asian people are viewing our site.

Last week, through not by way of our English site, a customer from Asian country came to visit our gallery, Ginza. He bought Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print and framed Japanese-style painting from us before.

It is surprising to me that there is such an Asian customer who is really interested in Japanese arts. I thought many Asian people evaluate Japanese arts lower than their own arts, so I did not imagine there are some people who are very interested in Japanese culture.

Originally, Japan, China, and Korea share the same Kanji(Chinese character) culture and big influence one another and the much Japanese culture came from China and Korea, in fact. However, the Meiji-ishin (Meiji Restoration : a chain of events that led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure) let Japan go ahead for modern and this caused the gap and cultural conflicts between Japan and other Asian countries. In Japan, we have a proverb “ Kawaisa amatte Nikusa Hyakubai” meaning "The greatest hate springs from the greatest love". As the proverb, even now we East Asian countries have big problems which caused by the things we cannot share some matters though we have the same base.

However, when I take a look at the history of the last four hundred years history of Europe and America, they had many bloody complicated conflicts but, it seems like they became to live at peace dealing with the politics and national sentiment. So I have a little hope we Asian people will respect each other someday about several hundreds years later.

Like the customer who visited us all the way and did not have prejudice against other countries’ culture, individuals who admit both cultures may create such atmosphere, I believe.

Finally, I would like to introduce you a recommended item of this week : Kujaku (peacock) of Kishi Renzan.

http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107007070/

Kishi School was specialized in flowes and birds (kacho-ga) paintings. Renzan was flourished in the last days of Tokugawa Shogunate. Detailed and spirited description of feather, sharp eyes, and firmly staying his feet were tactfully depicted in perfection by Renzan. In addition, rocks and pine trees are drawn exquisitely. Please enjoy this valuable vintage, scroll painting.

Well, I hope you are spending wonderful weekend and please take care not catching a cold.

See you next week!

Yours, sincerely
Chiaki Tanaka

**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
---------------------------------------------
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/

Kobori Enshu

2008-01-14T18:07:00.000+09:00

Today I went to the exibition of Kobori Enshu.
Kobori Enshu is a very great chajin(master of ceremonial tea) who is the master of tear ceremony of Tokugawa Shogunate in early Edo period.

However,there were huge number of people visiting the exbition, so I was compelled to see the art works over the heads of crowds. It is great news for the Japanese art and antique field ,but it was difficult to appreciate them closely.

I bought the thick catalog , so I will try to appreciate them again on the paper...

Shukado News Letter No.2 : Family2,Genji

2008-01-13T08:18:00.001+09:00

Dear customers and friends,

This is Shukado Newsletter No.2 (we changed the title from Japanese-finearts.com Newsletter)

Ohayo Gozaimasu,Good morning from Ginza,Tokyo

This is the first newsletter for you in year 2008, let me say "a Happy New Year" to you and I hope that 2008 will be a very happy and prosperous year for all of you.

Let me talk about continuation of our family business history of the first newsletter.

Although my father was brought up in the house where Kakejiku scrolls and antique books were scattered around everywhere, he did not succeed his family business immediately when he became a grown-up. As far as I know, he was helping his father’s business since his childhood, but he was not thinking about making it as his lifetime job.

When my father was a university student at Kyoto University, he belonged to the rugby club there. He ran very fast and was a very good rugby player. He is still proud of his fast running. At the time of his graduation, all graduates faced a hiring slump and it was so difficult to find a job. However, the rugby club had a good tradition that graduates help new graduates to find jobs and my father got a job at a sugar refining company with such help. He was assigned to the Kyushu office and spent many relaxing times there. In his late twenties, he was called back to Kyoto by his elder bother to help their family business and made a full-fledged start in his career as an antique fine arts dealer.

I also did not start my career as an art dealer straight after graduation from University. I wanted to be a filmmaker at that time. Unfortunately, the Japanese film industry was facing a very difficult time and my dream did not come true. Then I wanted to do something where I can contribute to society and joined in the farmer collective after my graduation from university. In my 30’s, I became engaged in the business related to computers which I had been enjoying as a hobby since my childhood. Finally, 4 or 5 years ago, I decided to succeed my father’s business.

In these years, I have seen tens of thousands of antique Japanese fine arts and various art pieces and I have also been engaged in purchasing and selling wide-ranged art pieces. Although I believe that I have acquired a certain level of knowledge about Japanese fine arts, I am still in the learning process as a professional art dealer. I am striving to do my best to do my job with some help from my father and other experts of various associations and groups in this field. I am also very happy to receive comments and queries from anyone concerned.

About a half month has passed since the opening of our website in November and we have added some items to our online shopping line-ups for each category.

I will make my best effort to introduce more excellent items from wider ranged genre to you on our website so that you can feel Japanese fine arts closer, so please keep checking it!

Shukado’s recommended item of this week is :
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107006610/

This set of byobu screens is used by someone in the Edo period. The scenes of the Tales of Genji are depicted on this pair of screens.

The Tales of Genji is often mentioned as the oldest long novel in the world history. This story was written by Murasaki Shikibu who was a court lady in the Heian Period. It is concerned with the life and loves of Prince Genji and the affairs of his children and grandchildren. It is written in a prose style, with a vocabulary of more than 12,000 words (more than one million letters in Japanese alphabet), with nearly 800 embedded poems.

The Tales of Genji has been giving enormous impacts on Japanese culture and the story is published in modern language and still read by many people.

This year is the 1000th year since Mirasaki Shikibu wrote this story and many conferences where academics gather from all over the world will be held.

Being such a popular story, the Tales of Genji is often depicted in daily furnishings and decoration items and this artwork is one of those furnishings created in the Edo period.

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As always, we appreciate your continuing support for our activities, and wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2008!

Chiaki Tanaka
Shukado Co., Ltd.

Online Gallery
"Japanese-FineArts.com by Shukado"
http://www.japanese-finearts.com

e-mail: info@japanese-finearts.com
address: 7F Sone bld. ,6-4-8 Ginza
Chuo-ku,Tokyo 104-0061 JAPAN

TEL ****( international number )+81-3-3569-3620
FAX ****( international number )+81-3-3569-3621

Online Gallery SYUKADO (Japanese page, but please visit and order via email.)
http://www.syukado.jp

Shukado News Letter No.1

2007-12-25T03:41:00.000+09:00

Hello from Ginza,Japan!

I hope that you are enjoying wonderful Christmas holidays.
I am Chiaki Tanaka, an on-line shop (Japanese-FineArts.com) director and a president of Shukado(Syukado).

We are sending this newsletter to the people who registered their subscription at our newly opened website “Japanese-FineArts.com” as well as at our Japanese website "ONLINE GALLERY SYUKADO" when you requested our catalog.
Although I referred to my personal background in the ICHIROYA’s newsletter, I would like to introduce my family history to you again.

*ICHIROYA News Letter No.224
http://www.ichiroya.com/blog/Ichiro/20071203#1

I was born into the family of Japanese fine arts dealers. Our family business initially started as an antique bookstore founded at Kyoto by Shin Tanaka, my grandfather on my father’s side.
Approximately 70 years ago, before the Pacific War started, my grandfather who was working at the publishing company started his own antique bookstore in Kyoto which sold antique books and Japanese fine arts including calligraphy and paintings.

My grandfather was the kind of person who was called “Bunjin Bokkaku”. Bunjin Bokkaku is a relatively difficult Japanese word and it means the group of intellectuals who love literature and fine arts. Many of the intellectuals and scholars at that time were categorized as Bunjin Bokkaku. They enjoyed the confidence of the people, but they were not always good at business. My father closed the antique bookshop and then he started publishing mail order catalogs for selling Japanese fine arts. Since he was still working with the publishing company, he composed type for printing by himself and made the catalog at low cost so that he could somehow get his business on the track.

Although his art business was financially feasible, he could not earn enough money out of the art business to support his seven children and therefore my grandmother who was working as a mid-wife, was the breadwinner in the family.
Then due to the Pacific war, the publication of the catalog was suspended and my grandfather’s family came to face the absolute poverty like the other Japanese families. My father, the youngest child among the seven brothers and sisters lived at different relative houses from one after another. My father must have had hardships during this period, but he rarely talks about his experiences.

After the war was over, seven brothers and sisters participated in this family business. They did not have any inventory and money. Although it is really hard to imagine how they could continue their family business, most of the Japanese people were in the similar financial situation so they could not waste their times just to moan over their predicament. They resumed their business by selling antique books borrowed from the relatives on a straw mat at the bridge over the Kamogawa River in Kyoto.

The old rented house, which was the business base of this family business until 1970’s as well as their home, still remains in a corner of Kyoto city. Unfortunately, the house is abandoned and nobody lives there now. When I was a child, I used to visit this house even after my family moved to Tokyo. It this wooden house, there was very steep steps (or it looked like a ladder) which could be often found in traditional Japanese houses. I went up the stairs to see my grandfather in the back room, who was barely living by drinking sake with some appetizers, and got some candies from him.

My father spent his early ages in this mysterious house with full of distinctive scent of old Japanese fine art pieces. He went to bed there almost buried in the old scrolls and antique books piled up mountain-high.

I think that I have written a long story dating back to long time ago and I should stop writing this story now.

About a half month has passed since the opening of our website in November and we have added some items to our online shopping line-ups for each category.
Ukiyo-e Print : http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list/35/
Modern Pring : http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list/36/
Painting : http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list/37/
Screen(Byoubu): http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list/38/

I will make our best effort to introduce more excellent items to you at our website, so please keep checking our website!
I wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Chiaki TanakaPresident of Shukado Co., Ltd.

*Our NEW English Website : Japanese-FineArts.com by Shukado
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/
*Catalog Request Page from ONLINE GALLERY SYUKADO
https://www.syukado.jp/en/catalog/index.paypal.html

Japanese-FineArts.com by Shukado
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/
e-mail: info@japanese-finearts.com
address: 7F Sone bld. ,6-4-8 GinzaChuo-ku,Tokyo 104-0061 JAPAN
TEL +81-3-3569-3620FAX +81-3-3569-3621
ONLINE GALLERY SYUKADO (Japanese)
http://www.syukado.jp
master@syukado.jp