We just added dozens of new Sake Sets to our site. These are all new designs that were not available before.

Added to our site today:

Beijing Silk Embroidery. Over a hundred different designs in stock. Choose from a great selection of Dragons, Koi, Landscapes, and our famous 100 Children.

Just added today…

An amazing selection of high quality Mammoth Ivory Netuke. Great designs including Geisha, Doctor’s Ladies, and more.

The Japanese art of Ukiyo-e developed in the city of Edo (now Tokyo) during the Tokugawa or Edo Period (1615-1868). These two names refer to the relatively peaceful 250 years during which the Tokugawa shoguns ruled Japan and made Edo the shogunal seat of power.

The social hierarchy of the day, officially established by shogun rulers, placed the merchants, the wealthiest segment of the population, at the lower end of the scale. With their political power effectively removed, the merchant class turned to art and culture as arenas in which they could participate on an equal basis with the elite upper classes (warriors, farmers, and artisans). It was the collaboration among the merchants, artists, publishers, and townspeople of Edo that gave Ukiyo-e its unique voice. In turn, Ukiyo-e provided these groups with a means of attaining cultural status outside the sanctioned realms of shogunate, temple, and court.

Although Ukiyo-e was initially considered “low” art, by and for the non-elite classes, its artistic and technical caliber is consistently remarkable. Reading the images demands an extremely high level of visual, textual, and cultural literacy. From its earliest days, Ukiyo-e images and texts frequently referred to themes from classical, literary, and historical sources. At the same time, Ukiyo-e constantly expanded to reflect contemporary tastes, concerns, and innovations over the two and a half centuries of its development. The result was an art that was both populist (of and for the people, readily accessible, plentiful, affordable) and highly sophisticated. In summary, Ukiyo-e presented both the historical and all that was current, fashionable, chic, and popular. In the hands of the Ukiyo-e artist, the ordinary was transformed into the extraordinary.

Below is a sample inro. This inro has three section that open to reveal compartments inside. A silk cord passes through the inro, then the ojime bead, and finally ends at the netsuke. The ojime bead is slid down against the top of the inro to keep it closed.

Beads have forever been a part of history, covering virtually every culture. Although most beads are used to embellish and adorn, they also serve a number of other functions, which covers political events, social circumstances, religious beliefs, symbolism of curative powers, and have even been used as currency. Beads are also made in a huge variety of colors and designs, and can be made from all types of materials to include wood, metal, glass, ivory, and plastic.

Many of the ojime beads made from ivory were first carved in China’s Heibei province. However, during the mid-1980s, ivory was banned at which time ojime beads were made from boxwood. These beads are not carved by just anyone, but actual master carvers who consider this a very valuable art form. Many master carvers can create up to five to ten designs and while some will vary in color, the density and fine grain are what makes them unique. For a single ojime bead to be crafted by a skilled master carver, approximately four to six hours is required. Once the carving is complete, the beads are then signed by the artist, hand polished, and waxed to bring out their lustrous shine before being sold.

With Ojime beads, these first originated in Japan. The beads are meant to work with the netsuke so the Japanese people could hang items on a sash from their kimono. Although these small beads are beautiful and intricately made, they had a very distinct purpose for every day life. Because of the amazing carving of the ojime beads, they soon became somewhat of a fashion statement.

Now keep in mind that during the 17^th Century in Japan, pockets were not a part of clothing design. Therefore, the Japanese people had no way to carry tobacco, currency, medicines, and other small personal items. Over time, the tobacco pouch was created along with a writing set to keep things together and organized. The Inro for example was a box with anywhere from two to seven layers, which were used to store small objects. To keep the Inro together, cords made of silk were braided and then run through the box vertically.

As a way of maintaining the integrity of the braid, ojime beads were used. Then to close off the end of the cord, a small toggle called the netsuke was placed. With this design, the Inro could dangle from the kimono out of the way yet within close reach. Soon, the beautifully designed ojime bead became a piece of art expressed by the artist. With so many different designs, the Japanese individual could choose the style, color, and design that best matched his or her personal preference. For instance, some of the designs included whales, dogs, monkeys, snakes, crabs, tigers, dogs, dragons, mice, bats, roosters, owls, and much more.

While you can still find authentic ojime beads, today, many reproductions are also available, which are quite charming and typically carved from boxwood found in China, but following the traditions of the Japanese. The design of the ojime bead consists of a hole drilled from the top all the way down through the bottom. Additionally, depending on the design of the bead, there may also be some holes running lengthwise. The original and reproduced ojime beads are indeed amazing, refined pieces of art that are actually very sophisticated.

Netsuke (pronounced “net-ski” or “net-skeh”) are tiny sculptures that originated in Japan as an accessory to traditional Japanese clothing. They have since evolved over a time period of three hundred years into works of art that are both collected and revered by art aficionados across the globe.

Originally, Netsuke served both functional and aesthetic purposes. The Japanese kimono did not have pockets, so women would hold small objects in their sleeves, and men would wear a silk cord on their obi, or sash. From the cord, they would hang items such as tobacco pouches and coin purses. These items were known as sagemono. To stop the silk cord from slipping under the weight of their sagemono, they would attach a small toggle to the cord. These toggles were known as netsuke, which literally means, “root for fastening”.

All three items (the obi, sagemono and netsuke) were beautifully decorated with carvings, lacquer work and inlays of precious metals, ivory, coral and other rare or expensive materials. Netsuke were often carved into different designs, and were shaped as everything from animals to humans to abstract patterns. Because of their individuality and uniqueness, netsuke quickly became highly collectable and their design became a coveted art form. Netsuke were also a sign of social status, as the craftsmanship and the quality of materials used varied between individual pieces. The wealthy tended to own better quality netsuke.

Netsuke can be made from a large variety of material, the most popular being ivory. However, it is not uncommon to find netsuke made from wood, animal tusks and antlers, amber, pottery, bamboo and more. There are many different styles of netsuke as well. The most common style is called katabori, or figural netsuke. These are the netsuke that resemble people or animals. Another type of netsuke are sashi, which are long and thin. Manju netsuke are named after a bean paste dish because of their round shapes that look similar to buttons. Kagamibuta, which means “mirror lid”, are netsuke that consist of a metal lid and a bowl. Finally, mask netsuke are fashioned after the masks in the Noh or Kyogen style plays that were popular in Japan at the time. Common netsuke subjects included the animal characters taken from the Asian zodiac as well as mythological figures, heroes and scenes from everyday life, but netsuke subject matter was hardly limted to these and they could take the form of anything the artist could possibly imagine.

By the 19^th century, netsuke were no longer needed in their functional role. Japanese culture, and thus dress, was heavily influenced by European styles, and the kimono and obi fashion fell out of favor. They still remained highly collectable however, as the startling amount of detail that went into each netsuke was a true jewel in the crown of Japanese art development. Today, netsuke fetch hefty prices from collectors around the world who admire the intricate and delicate craftsmanship, and the uniqueness and individuality of these beautiful works of Japanese art

The Japanese Woodblock Print is an art form, which highlights flowing, curved outlines, simplistic forms as well as the detailing of flat areas containing color. This form of art has not only existed for a long time in Asian history, but it has also deeply impacted artists in both Europe and North America throughout the 19^th century.

Woodblock printing was first used in Japan in the 8th century to print religious texts. Buddhists traveling from China brought these texts, as well as the printing method itself, to Japan.

These first prints were made in a single color using only Sumi ink. The world would have to wait nearly 900 years for the first colored prints to appear. Early color prints were made using a single block and black ink. The colors were hand painted by workers in the print shops. It was only when the popularity of these prints exceeded the production capacity of the workshops that the true woodblock print evolved.

To meet the rising demand, the printers employed master carvers to make individual blocks for each of the colors in the print. Many of the finer woodblock prints contained 15 or more colors, requiring 15 different expertly carved wooden print blocks. Each of these blocks had to be carved with great precision to ensure that the colored sections met perfectly.

Earliest among these images were private calendars that were printed without first by Suzuku Hornbook (1725-1770), and later with other various artists. One of the most famous of Suzuku Hornbook’s print was the image “The Køya Jewel River”.

Beginning in the mid-1760s, the newly discovered color prints were sold commercially; their depictions included themes that were both classical as well as contemporary; these themes included literary scenes, the lives of celebrities, women of beauty, travel scenes, erotic scenes, as well as actors in their different dramatic roles.

During the 19^th century, some of the most exhibited and represented artists of Japanese Woodblock Prints are Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769-1825), Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865), Utamaro Kitagawa (1750-1806), and Andø Hiroshige (1797-1858).

The techniques that were used were varied, but were absolutely critical to the final print. While working, the artist is required to keep a very specific goal in mind while creating the blocks. This mindset should be in line with the Japanese tradition of demonstrating the precise direction of the brush that would be painting the picture, so that the features of the original piece, as well as the written characters, are not in any way destroyed. So from the artist’s point of view, the direction of the knife should match identically the direction of the brush, which initially inscribed the picture. This being said, it is easy to understand that it takes an extremely skilled hand to replicate the unique and exact features captured in the originals, while simultaneously demonstrating the artist’s own skill and character.

The wood that is used for Japanese Woodblock Prints is selected very carefully. The woods considered include only very specific types of trees, and only certain textures of wood within those different species. No matter what, the texture of the wood must be extremely fine and very hard.

The differences between old and modern methods of Japanese woodcutting are as follows: the method of cutting on wood - as the ancient woodcuts is deeper than the ones that are made today. However, though more shallow, the present day pieces allow for much greater detail.

The majority of the woodblock prints were produced in the cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo (formerly Edo). Workshops in Kyoto still produce woodblock prints today, which is the source of the prints we offer for sale on our site.

Ukiyo-e is probably the best known and most popular style of Japanese art. Like artistic eras in other parts of the world, Ukiyo-e art was produced in a variety of different media, including painting. Ukiyo-e, which is Japanese for “pictures of the floating world”, is primarily associated with a style of woodblock print making that depicted scenes of harmony and carefree everyday living. Because it used woodblocks to make a number of prints, Ukiyo-e took art from being the domain of the upper classes and royalty. This then made it more accessible to the common people.

Ukiyo-e became popular around the mid-nineteenth century. One of the first major artists in the Ukiyo-e was Monorobu Hishikawa, who produced single color prints made with woodblocks. Hishikawa, who was an illustrator for a book publisher, had to argue very hard to convince his superiors that printing and selling single sheet artworks would be a lucrative enterprise. This is certainly ironic, since Ukiyo-e became one of the most popular and lucrative forms of art the world has ever seen.

Hishikawa became the first Ukiyo-e “master”, and once his works had achieved widespread fame, he began to accept pupils. His actions created a trend, and soon other master artists were working with students to promote several different styles of print-making. The most popular subjects for Ukiyo-e prints at first were women, usually prostitutes, or “courtesans”, and Ukiyo-e became known for its almost pornographic qualities. However, not all Ukiyo-e prints featured nudity. In fact, many were full length portraits of women displaying their kimonos not unlike modern fashion models.

The first Ukiyo-e prints used a single color – custom prints with added color had to be finished by hand. Though later developments allowed the use of three, and then finally multiple colors, the process of woodblock printing remained basically the same. The artist would produce a master painting, which was then traced by craftsmen who carefully marked where each color would be placed. Then these craftsmen would make templates for each color, producing a separate woodblock for each one. The woodblocks were then pressed sequentially onto the paper in a certain order, producing the final product.

The Ukiyo-e style remained popular into the nineteenth century. While courtesans and other women remained popular subjects, landscapes, city scenes, and many other scenes from everyday life began to emerge as popular subjects as the art form became more widespread. Ando Hiroshige, a woodblock artist who began producing works around the beginning of the nineteenth century, is widely regarded as one of the best Ukiyo-e artists. His master works, a series of prints called Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido, are considered as some of the finest Ukiyo-e prints, and his passing in 1858 more or less coincided with the end of the Ukiyo-e woodblock printing era.

Yue embroidery is the oldest of the four most famous Chinese embroidery styles. Yue embroidery is sometimes called Cantonese embroidery because of its origins in the Guangdong province (the heart of Canton China). Dating back several centuries, the designs produced with this style are complicated and have a variety of stylistic accents to draw attention to the central subject. It is also a style marked by smooth embroidery, with very little of the three dimensional texturing found in other styles. With bright colors and a variety of different threads used, Yue embroidery is perhaps the most eclectic of the four major Chinese embroidery styles, and it is still produced and widely available today.

The style developed and matured during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) more than 1,000 years ago, and is said to have originated from the work of an ethnic minority group in the Guangdong area. The style was quickly adopted by many artisans, having undergone many changes and refinements during the intervening years. There has also been supposition that Yue embroidery was developed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). However, it is more likely that the style enjoyed resurgence in popularity during this period, since pieces produced in the Yue style have been found which predate the Ming Dynasty.

Yue embroidered pieces can be done on silk or cotton. Early Chinese Yue artisans used peacock feathers, which had been twisted together as their thread, and this uniquely colorful material is still used as an accenting thread and as a way to blend separate objects in the design together. Another unique thread used is made from the tail of the horse; this coarse material is used to stitch an outline to the piece, which invites the eye to linger on the patterns, colors, and objects, making up the main design. This main design may be produced with either silk or cotton threads, and often features multiple objects or animals such as birds or dragons.

Although Yue embroidery is smooth, Yue crafters sometimes use gold and silver thread to create a three dimensional impression in their designs. As Yue embroidery has developed, it has often borrowed stylistic elements from other Chinese embroidery styles. Yue embroidery can also be sub-categorized into the Guang and Chao styles. These two styles are considered a part of the Yue embroidery “family” and have their own distinct stitching techniques.

The Yue embroidery style is rich and vibrant, and includes many different colors and patterns. It is one of the most eclectic of styles, and yet the works produced are intricate and unbelievably detailed. While older pieces are highly prized by collectors, modern Yue pieces add color and interest to any home. Yue embroidery has been used in many different ways, in pieces ranging from bridal gowns to wall hangings.

Shu embroidery is a relatively recent (by Chinese standards) Chinese embroidery style, having been developed around the middle of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). One of the four great Chinese embroidery styles, Shu embroidery was developed in and around the city of Shengdu in Sichuan province. Although what we now think of as the Shu style matured in the Qing dynasty the Sichuan area has a history of producing embroidery that dates back several hundred years, and Shu embroidery is considered to be one of the end products of the evolution of this long history. With many natural subjects depicted in colorful threads, Shu embroidery is mostly concerned with showing the joys of life, and has been used in many different pieces, both practical and decorative.

Examples of embroidery have been discovered in the Sichuan province dating from more than 2,000 years ago. Fish have been among the most popular subjects for embroiderers from Sichuan; one account from the Western Han dynasty (202 B.C. – 9 A.D.) tells of the intricate detailing of a carp taking more than a month for an embroiderer to complete. The production of embroidery was first done by males, but over the years it has passed to young women. The Shu embroidery which matured during the Qing dynasty, which is also called Chuan embroidery, is still produced in China today and has been widely exported to countries all over the world.

Shu embroidery is typically done on the soft satin fabric produced in Sichuan province. It uses brightly colored threads, evenly stitched to produce a delicate picture or pattern. Shu embroidery is particularly characterized by the closeness of its stitching, which allows Shu embroiderers to highlight miniscule details in the subjects they produce. A Shu embroidered piece may include hundreds of thousands of stitches in a single figure or animal, and may take many days or even weeks to complete. One of the most popular subjects for Shu embroiderers is the panda bear, but scenes of nature of any kind are common. The fish which engrossed embroiderers from Sichuan in ancient times are still often seen, as are close-ups of plants, landscapes, and detailed looks at many animals.

Shu embroidery is used for both artistic pieces and for objects which may be used every day. Quilts, sheets, slippers, or clothes may be embroidered in the Shu style, lending color and beauty to the wearer. Equally enjoyable are art pieces produced in the Shu style. These may include wall hangings, screens for separating rooms, or curtains. The rich color and vibrant images found in Shu embroidery are meant to remind the viewer (or wearer) of the joy which can be found in any living thing; it is perhaps because of this joy that Shu embroidery remains popular to this day.

Suzhou or “Su” embroidery is one of the oldest embroidery techniques in the world, with origins stretching back more than 2,000 years. Suzhou embroidery was one of the first embroidery styles to be developed in China, but its detailed needlework and intricate images are still produced today. It is a style characterized by brightly colored silk embroidered with well-proportioned and uncluttered representations of almost any pastoral scene, person, animal, or object. Examples of Suzhou embroidery were so detailed and intricate that many people used the pieces as artwork, and some of the oldest pieces still in existence date back hundreds of years.

There are records of detailed embroidered pieces being produced in the Suzhou area around 200 BC, and of embroidered silk being used as maps in the second and third century AD. But it was during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) that the Suzhou style became prominent. With finely spun silk thread embroiders from the Suzhou area were able to create images that were said to have “rivaled nature,” and it became very stylish to have Suzhou embroidery in the home. Embroidery spread to other provinces throughout China, and soon embroiderers all over the country were working were working in the Suzhou style. Although other techniques of Chinese embroidery have appeared over the years, it is the Suzhou style that has set the standard for other styles.

Suzhou embroidery consists of very detailed representations of almost any subject embroidered onto fine silk with silk thread. One of the distinctive features of Suzhou embroidery is that some pieces two-sided; that is, the picture is repeated on both sides of the embroidered piece. The stitching on Suzhou embroidered pieces is done with silk threads that have been divided until the actual thread is almost impossible to see. Through the repetition of stitches a very dense embroidering occurs. Suzhou embroidery has been used in clothing, wall hangings, and even intricate book covers dating back almost 1,000 years.

Suzhou embroidery as a technique has continued to grow and develop. In the years since its first appearance, many crafting schools have taught the technique, and an entire industry has developed to produce Suzhou embroidery pieces for sale both in China and on world markets. However, Suzhou embroidery is not just a commercial enterprise; master Suzhou embroiderers have practiced their craft for hundreds of years, creating some of the most detailed and beautiful pieces.

Whether you buy a Suzhou embroidered piece made recently or search for a piece with more history, Suzhou embroidery remains one of the world’s finest techniques. Many people around the world are now discovering the beauty and artistry inherent in these pieces, and it seems clear that the market for Suzhou embroidery will remain strong for years to come.