First Ukiyo-e Encounters

by Toyokuni Utagawa

ca. 1815

No doubt most collectors have seen Japanese prints many times before they take the plunge and make their first actual purchase. A Hiroshige view of Edo on a card or Japanese stamp, Hokusai's "Great Wave" on a CD cover or a book on Japan, an Utamaro beauty on a poster or advertisement. We saw these, but later realize that we really did not see them.

In my case, I had even leafed through several books on Japanese prints and gone to an exhibition of them in Tokyo, looking, sometimes quite carefully, but not really seeing. For prints did not have a personal connection to me until I began to collect them, they did not touch my life, they were not part of my daily experience, they entered my eyes but not my being.

Kunimasa and Toyokuni I

I still remember the experience of viewing that exceptional Kunimasa portrait of Danjuro in "Shibaraku" and marveling at what a wonderful piece it was, but from a distance on the exhibition floor, as I might marvel at a Rembrandt that appealed to me, without intimacy, closeness or deep understanding.

When, a few years later, I had purchased several prints by Kunimasa's teacher, Toyokuni I, and understood just what its placement was in the development of ukiyo-e - its relationship to okubi-e, kabuki, the growth of the Utagawa School - the print suddenly meant more to me than it did when it was directly before me. The difference was that I had begun to engage with prints, not only in art books, but by spending hours in the print galleries, staring and staring at designs until they opened and spoke to me - in which case I bought them - or didn't, in which case I moved on.

Typical Novice Collector Mistakes

by Toyokuni Utagawa

ca. 1815

Of course this wasn't to say that I always made the right choices, or that my values were in the right place. Of the first dozen or so prints I acquired, I have retained only four (and one, my first purchase, for purely sentimental reasons) but I consider this an exceptional average for someone who so little knew what he was doing.

The mistakes I made in my early purchases were those that most novice collectors make, and I list them here so that others in that position may learn from them.

The Donts ...

The first was to settle for less than completely satisfying prints because they were at bargain prices. The second was to judge too much by the name and reputation of the designer, rather than looking carefully at the design. The third was not to understand the importance of condition, not to know where to draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable damage, or even sometimes to recognize damage where it existed.

... and the Dos

I knew better than to accept reproductions when original prints were to be had for not much more, and I instinctively shied away from most book prints, for which I now congratulate myself. My mistakes were not so major - for how far wrong can one go in the purchase of original prints at low prices? - but I lacked the courage and certainty to reach beyond my usual $100-$150 limit, and the first few times I tried, the extra investment seemed to me not worth it (which means, precisely, that it wasn't.)

Still, that first month of collecting Japanese prints was a magical time, in which I never had any idea what was going to appear. I went around to the various shops and galleries, not knowing whether I was going to stumble upon an Utamaro or a Hokusai, or perhaps some other gloried name in the books on prints I avidly read as I rode the subways between.

Do Lots of Reading!

That was one of the things that I did right - plentiful reading - and the other was patience, comparison of all sources before I began to buy. The third, and most pleasurable, was careful evaluation of each purchase that I made, sitting alone with the print in my apartment and examining it thoroughly, letting my eyes trace every line and absorb each color, allowing the print to speak to me and seeing if I liked what it said.

This experience, of learning what I really liked and what moved me most profoundly, then led me to be able to make better evaluations of prints in galleries. I still did not have enough experience to make the wisest discriminations, and settled for some prints that in retrospect might better have not been purchased, but these small mistakes too were invaluable in learning what to take with me, and what to leave behind.

Be a Slow Starter and Limit Your Budget

In short, if you are a beginning collector, my advice would be to start slowly, keeping your purchases within a certain budget that is comfortable to you.

Remember, it is far easier to recoup your investment on a print that cost $100 or less than it is on a print that cost much more - and the odds are that as you go further in collecting, you will begin to reject some of your early purchases as not right for you.

This is a natural process, like weeding a garden so that you can better see the flowers, and should not disturb you. In fact, with the internet as a resource, it is quite easy to dispose of a print, and to put it in the hands of someone who will appreciate it more than you.

Until you know enough to discriminate original from reproduction on your own, buy only from established sources, and trustworthy dealers who guarantee the originality of what they sell.

Trust Yourself!

Most of all, trust yourself, listen carefully to your instincts. If something appears to you slightly wrong, the odds are that it is wrong.

If the hole in that Hokusai print seems to distract from the design (even though it is such a famous design and you don't yet have a print by Hokusai....) your instinct to avoid it will probably be right on.

The whispers that you hear as a beginner will become clear commands as you go further along with your collecting. So proceed carefully, but by all means proceed! A fascinating world awaits those brave enough to venture in.

Dan McKee

The author, Dan McKee is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Japanese literature program at Cornell University, NY.  He has a Master of the Fine Arts degree from Syracuse University, as well as an M.A. from Cornell.

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