Conversations in Color: Visiting Ichien Tatsuo in Kansai
- hilarytolman
- 10 hours ago
- 4 min read
I visit Japan several times a year to check in on the Tokyo gallery and the artists we represent. One of those trips usually falls in October, when two highlights of the Japanese print world take place: the College Women’s Association of Japan’s annual print show and the Japan Print Association’s annual exhibition. Both opening nights are essential stops on the Japan works-on-paper circuit, great for catching up with old friends and scoping out potential new talent. And, since autumn in Japan is so beautiful, I usually tack on a little side trip of my own to the trip. This year, I managed to combine business with pleasure, my favorite kind of trip.
Yesterday, Daisuke from the Tokyo gallery and I visited the studio of Tatsuo ICHIEN in the Kansai area. Although he’s a new addition to our roster of printmakers, Ichien-san is hardly new to printmaking. He has been creating beautiful woodblocks for decades and, since the mid-1970s, has released more than five hundred different images in very limited editions of thirty. Ichien-san has always printed his own work and a few years ago, due to his intense perfectionism, decided to limit his editions further to no more than ten: a boon for collectors but woe betide the indecisive!
His experience and skill are obvious, from the quiet layering to the subtle shifts of color in every print. I wrote a blog post when we first started handling Ichien-san's work, and you can read it here "Introducing Tatsuo ICHIEN: Quiet Forms, Lasting Impressions" to learn more about Ichien-san's technique and to view some further images of his work. As I said there, his prints add a deeply contemplative and technically sophisticated approach to Japanese woodblock printing.
The Tolman Collection showed Ichien-san's woodblocks for the first time at this year's fall Affordable Art Fair in New York and, while we are personally very enthusiastic about his work (so much so that Daisuke has added one to his personal collection, which for an art dealer is the highest compliment), we were nonetheless flabbergasted that we sold every single piece of the many that we had acquired from the artist. His prints are truly irresistible, and even more beautiful in person than on your screen.
It was a lovely autumn day, and I was looking forward to meeting Ichien-san and his wife, Hiromi KAWASAKI, for the first time. She is an artist as well and kept her own name They live up a very steep hill and our little rental car gamely navigated all the twists and turns of the road, occasionally pausing for oncoming traffic which, unlike us, blithely zipped down the sharp incline. Once we parked in front of the home, we paused to enjoy the quiet neighborhood atmosphere, punctuated by children's chatter and laughter as they walked home from school. We removed our shoes at the entrance of Ichien-san and Kawasaki-san's elegantly simple two-story house and walked into the upper level where tea was waiting to restore us after the drive. Kawasaki-san had prepared home made chestnut sweets for us to enjoy with our tea, a lovely reminder that hospitality in Japan is gracious and most things are attuned to the seasons.
We were also there to select pieces for upcoming art fairs. As we viewed one stunning woodblock after another, we felt quite strongly that we needed to take them all away with us and the pile of prints that we set aside got taller and taller. Ichien-san is seventy-seven and frequently told us: “I’ve only printed a few in that edition and I just don’t have it in me to print more.” Several times, as we were enthusiastically adding yet another print to our acquisition pile, he would gently shake his head and say: “I’m sorry but I just can’t part with that one.” He had such a wistful expression on his face each time he said this that I admired his resolve to keep certain cherished pieces for himself, rather than being crushed that I couldn't take those particular prints home with me.
Our afternoon together was truly memorable. Ichien-san and Kawasaki-san welcomed us with such warmth that the visit felt like a reunion among old friends. It turned out to be a truly lovely day: a bit of business, a lot of beauty, and the kind of thoughtful conversation that stays with you.
Encounters like this remind me of how lucky I am to have had the opportunity, often since childhood, of building privileged relationships with the artists whose work The Tolman Collection handles, and therefore intimately understanding and knowing the people behind the art. I left Ichien-san's studio deeply grateful for the chance to spend quality time with an artist who embodies the same calm, reflective spirit that infuses each piece that he has magicked into existence.
