Thomas - Katsukawa School Fan
Thomas works for an auction house in England. He bought his first print in 2019 out of curiosity, although he had been collecting antiques in general for many years before that.
Who are your favorite ukiyo-e artists?
Listing all of my favorite artists individually would take quite a bit of writing, but my favorite school is without doubt the Katsukawa School, closely followed by artists working in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
What appeals to you about collecting ukiyo-e?
I mostly collect yakusha-e (actor prints), and I like that they are portraits of real people in real performances. Many can also be dated very precisely to a specific year with the help of kabuki records. It also helps that I’m very interested in modern Kabuki, so it’s easy for me to imagine what the actors might have looked like while performing.
Any tips or advice for novice collectors?
Seeing as many prints as possible is incredibly important. Once you’ve seen enough prints—for example, late 18th-century works - it becomes almost instinctive when you encounter potential reprints. Reprinted or recarved editions will almost always be on very clean, substantial paper and can sometimes look almost too good to be true. With experience, original impressions become much easier to recognize.
Any closing ukiyo-e stories or comments?
One of my favorite stories about my collection involves a print by Utagawa Kuniyasu. Not long after I began collecting, I bought a print for just £16 depicting Ichikawa Danjūrō VII as Iwafuji in the play Kagamiyama. At the time I suspected it might be the right-hand sheet of a diptych, but I wasn’t certain. Later I learned that it almost certainly was.
However, I had never seen the corresponding sheet anywhere online, so I resigned myself to the idea that the image might never be complete. Then in April 2024, after finishing work one day, I was scrolling through prints on eBay when I suddenly saw what had to be the missing sheet. I bought it immediately, regardless of the price. Now the two sheets live happily reunited in my folder.
I post photographs of new prints I add to my collection on Bluesky whenever I have the chance to photograph them: https://bsky.app/profile/thomaspden.bsky.social
Favorite prints
Tōshūsai Sharaku, The Actor Segawa Tomisaburō II as Yadorigi, Wife of Ōgishi Kurando
Okumura Masanobu, Lady with a Mirror
Paul Binnie, Nakamura Utaemon VI as Agemaki