Thank you for visiting the Mayuyama Junkichi Archives

Major changes are occurring in the settings which contain arts for visual appreciation and antique arts. We are in an age in which art exhibitions with diverse themes are held, art auctions commonly occur throughout the world, and the internet lets us view art works located anywhere in the world. And yet, amidst all of this convenience, I still have questions about this new environment.

Have these conditions increased your ability to have up-close interactions with art, to touch and appreciate antiques in person? Do you have enough time in spaces you enjoy to fully immerse yourself in the stories told by antique art works?

I suggest that amidst our fast-moving times, opportunities to become intimately aware of the distant lives of the people conveyed by antique arts have become fleeting, high-speed moments.

As I grew up in an art dealer family, I have come to experience the expressions of anticipation on the faces of customers who open the front door of our gallery. There has been a steady stream of art aficionados and scholars who lose all sense of time as they immerse themselves in art work encounters after passing through those doors. Our gallery is a place where one can spend time choosing a work, educating the mind’s eye to its features.

Antique art works are affirmations for those of us alive today. They have a gentle life force of their own. The beauty of these works that fills our hearts was born long ago, and it is a strange experience to sense how they have been entrusted to us today. Our dialogue with antique art, even today, is of incalculable value.

The art dealers who foster such interactions also thrive. The records of art dealer Mayuyama Junkichi active a century ago show that the role of the art dealer who makes the effort to travel the world’s art market for their clients has not greatly changed in the interim.

This is the entrance to a website where the records of a single art dealer will bring the realm of art for visual appreciation all the closer to your everyday life.

Unlike other art dealers, Mayuyama Junkichi spent considerable time and effort on research and record creation. He recorded works via photographs, and diligently continued to accumulate information and materials regarding works. He even went so far as to write and publish articles in specialist art journals. He was the sort of person unbothered by the tasks of organizing and summarizing materials. And he did not keep these findings to himself, rather he attached them to works for sale in his gallery and shared them with others in the industry, all with the hope of refining and furthering the growth of Japan’s antique business.

I have built this website in order to convey to others my grandfather’s spirit and character. In addition to the thanks and appreciation felt by my grandfather, I would like to add my gratitude to not only those customers who supported Mayuyama Junkichi over the years, but also others in the antique business both in Japan and abroad, antique art specialists and scholars, along with all of the specialists, from furoshiki wrapping makers to restorers, art transport and specialist art handlers. It is in that spirit that I manage this website as his granddaughter.

Mayuyama Ayako