Therapies

Retail and others.

I have not been hiking in a while. Instead, I have been taking some retail therapy. That and Antiquing therapy is more accurate. Since my first time to Japan in the early 90s, ukiyoe, Japanese wood block prints, have held my interest. This interest was one of many things I shared with a lovely young women whom would eventually become my girlfriend, wife, mother of my one and only child and now, exwife over the span of 23 years. When we still dating, an elderly relative of hers passed away. While her family was clearing out the deceased residence, they found a collection of high quality reproductions of Edo era ukiyoe. By “reproduction” here, I mean that new wood blocks were carved and used to reprint antique prints on the same kind of handmade paper with the same type of inks. “Reproduction” is not universally used amongst those who remake these prints nor those who sell or collect them but I use it as many do, to differentiate from those reprinted using modern techniques and or materials.

My then girlfriend’s family was about to throw them out when someone recalled that I was interested in the art form and they were given to me. So, I took them with me when I moved out. Months later, my ex demanded them back. I reluctantly relented and returned them to her.

As these were just the kind of thing I would have brought back from Japan had she not induced me to stay in Japan, I sought to build a new collection of these wonderful prints. Providence had me cruising through Jimbocho, long famous for used books and art during one of the neighborhood’s several old book fairs held every year. I found a lot of these reproduced ukiyoe and a number of them came home with me. The prices were astonishingly low, the exact opposite of their condition and quality.

I found pictures I took of my lost collection a few years ago including some that I strongly desire to replace. Deciding to skip what had become my weekly Sunday hike a second time for antiquing, I went to a weekly flea market in Shinjuku. The first vendor I saw had many color copies of original wood block prints. Not interested in this, I walked on past. The second vendor that caught my eye had remnants of the same set I once had. Among the prints he still had were 5 on my wanted list. The price was a bit higher than the average of what I paid in Jimbocho but at a little more than a quarter of the cost of buying these new and they all came with their original envelopes and bilingual explanation sheets. Bought all five of these. At this same, small market I found many prints being sold by other vendors from which I bought several. Two were a lot pricier and the remaining a lot less. Overall average price, very good. I also picked up a matching sake serving bottle and cup at this market.

A day or two before I had seen something online about a place I used to frequent often. When home ported in Yokosuka in the early 90s,mwhenever I was in port and didn’t have duty on a Sunday, I took the long trip to Nakano for Gaelic lessons in the McDonald’s in the covered shopping street followed by Irish step dancing classes across the street at Nakano Sun Plaza. Years later when living one stop away on the local line while an exchange student in Tokyo, I went here often. I hadn’t been there in years and the blurb I saw about its night life, something I had never be able to partake of, enticed me to reconnoiter the area again. Being fairly close to Shinjuku, I plotted a course for Nakano after enjoying a coffee as I perused my new acquisitions. This will be the subject of another post but now I will say that I found a tiny antique store in the covered mall that had a lot of the things I am looking for to bring back fromJapan. These included reproductions of two more ukiyoe, a matching pair of kiriko, cut glass, sake cups and a large cast copper incense censor from China. Getting everything back home, hours away on crowded trains unbroken was a hassle but well worth it.

I have since aggressively embarked upon a quest for Ukiyoe of places I know well in and around Tokyo in addition to the “Beauties” of my lost collection. Not the only topicals that interest me, these are the largest. Others include everyday items of the age, watercraft, anything military, shrines and temples which make up most of the rest of the list. One I recently picked up included an incense censor with smoke rising from it. Some I have chosen at least part for certain artistic techniques, including embossing patterns into certain parts of the print. From what I have seen, this is mainly done on unlinked portions of the print, like to imitate white embroidery upon a white kimono. I have examples of this technique applied to fans in the print, both white and colored, to show their bamboo framing. Viewing Japanese woodblock prints in a book is nothing like seeing them with the naked eye.

In the past 30 days I have received 1.5 times my earnings for the entire year of 2024. So I decided to seek out an entire collection of reproductions os Hiroshige’s 100 famous views of Edo (Tokyo). This will be pricey but a collection of true value. My timing could not have been worse. A famous ukiyoe museum, whose gift shop I stopped by yesterday, has the whole collection on exhibition. When I asked about this in my new favorite ukiyoe store, I was told that tourists who visited the exhibition have scoured Jimbocho and bought up all of the preowned reproduction sets of this series. Oh well. Will continue to search for individual prints from this series of places I have the strongest connection to.