Rus Gant – A Lifetime Immersed in Japanese Art
Rus Gant has been collecting Japanese woodblock prints for more than thirty-five years, a pursuit rooted in an early and formative connection to Japan itself. Having grown up in Japan in the 1950s, Rus developed a deep familiarity with its visual culture at a young age. Now an artist and arts researcher, he has spent a lifetime studying, collecting, and living with Japanese art.
Over the decades, his collection has grown to an extraordinary scale. It includes more than 500 ukiyo-e triptychs and larger polyptychs, along with numerous diptychs and single ōban prints from the Meiji period. Complementing the prints is a library of over 6,000 books on Japanese art - spanning English, Japanese, and French publications from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - making his collection as scholarly as it is visual.
Favorite Artists
Rus’s collecting centers on the Utagawa School, whose artists defined much of the visual language of late Edo and Meiji-period ukiyo-e. The school’s bold compositions, narrative intensity, and technical sophistication continue to reward close study and long-term engagement.
What Appeals About Collecting Ukiyo-e
For Rus, collecting ukiyo-e is fundamentally about learning to see differently. Japanese woodblock prints offer a non-Western perspective on art - one with its own approaches to space, storytelling, symbolism, and design. Engaging deeply with these works has shaped not only his collection, but also his broader understanding of art history and visual culture.
Advice for New Collectors
Rus offers a thoughtful, methodical approach for beginners. He recommends immersing yourself in the market by viewing thousands of listings and saving images that instinctively resonate. Once patterns emerge, identify the common thread - whether an artist, subject, or aesthetic—and refine your searches accordingly. Repeat the process patiently until you find a work you can afford, then begin again. Over time, this instinct-led method helps build both knowledge and confidence.
Rus encourages collectors and scholars alike to read Frank Lloyd Wright’s seminal 1912 text, The Japanese Print: An Interpretation, a work that helped shape Western understanding of ukiyo-e. For him, Japanese woodblock prints remain not only objects of beauty, but enduring teachers - offering insight into a different way of seeing the world.
Selected Favorite Prints
Among Rus’s favorite works are several iconic examples of ukiyo-e storytelling and design. These include Mitsukuni Defying the Skeleton Spectre Invoked by Princess Takiyasha by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Dawn at Futamai-ga-ura by Utagawa Kunisada (1832), and Fujiwara Yasumasa Plays the Flute by Moonlight by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. Each reflects a mastery of drama, atmosphere, and narrative that defines the best of the tradition.
Mitsukuni Defying the Skeleton Spectre Invoked by Princess Takiyasha by Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Dawn at Futamai-ga-ura by Utagawa Kunisada
Fujiwara Yasumasa Plays the Flute by Moonlight by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi