An auction of Japanese and Korean Art during Asia week sales in New York achieved a total of $9.7 million across 187 lots. The sale realized an 85 percent sell-through rate and set two world records for Japanese masters.
The top lots of the sale were a hanging scroll by Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800), Pair of Cranes and the Rising Sun, which set the artist record, achieved five-times its low estimate, selling for $1,590,000. Katsushika Hokusai’s woodblock print titled Under the Well of the Great Wave off Kanagawa, sold for the $1.6 million with buyer’s premium. The print was created in 1831. The print was estimated to be sold at $150,000 which was 10 times lower than its sale value. The scene, which is the Japanese painter’s signature image, depicts Tokyo-bound boaters confronting rough waters, with Mount Fuji visible in the background.
Hokusai’s most famous works are wave prints which he started in early 1800s. They were introduced to the European market in the mid-19th century. By the time this print was produced, the artist was in his 70s and in financial need.
Ito Jakuchu’s Pair of Cranes and the Rising Sun has two white cranes that are emblems of the New Year and symbols of immortality in East Asia. The work came from a private Japanese collection and had never before been sold on the market. The previous record for a work by Jakuchu was set in 2006, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art sold a handscroll titled Suibokuyu (The pleasure of ink) at Christie’s New York for $441,600. The estimated value for the handscroll was $80,000.
“The exceptional results and global participation in today’s sale demonstrate the strength of the market,” said Takaaki Murakami, a specialist in Japanese and Korean Art at Christie’s.
The top Korean artwork sold in the auction was a gilt-bronze standing figure of Buddha, which went for $162,500, against its low estimate of $30,000. Another print by Hokusai, Mino no Kuni Yoro no taki (The Yoro waterfall in Mino Province), depicting a waterfall, sold for $100,000, 10 times its low estimate of $10,000. Japanese artist Kano Eino’s large-scale six-panel gold leaf screen Birds and Flowers of Four Seasons (ca. 17th century) sold for $250,000, against an estimate of $50,000.
