Japanese & Korean Art

We are currently inviting entries for our Spring 2025 series of Asian Art sales. Please contact the department at aa@woolleys.live for further information.

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The Japanese sales at Woolley & Wallis have featured a wide range of works of art, from 5th c. Haniwa funerary figures to contemporary lithographs by interdisciplinary artist Takashi Murakami (1962-). Recent highlights include an album of woodblock prints by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) including 69 views from the series 'Famous Views of the Sixty-Odd Provinces' (c.1853-58), which sold for £110,000 on 15th November 2022. A rare and important 17th c. lacquer cabinet made for the Dutch market, is another highlight, which sold for over £130,000. An unrecorded and massive porcelain incense burner shaped as an elephant was another important lot and sold for over £30,000. The November 2021 sale included a good selection of woodblock prints (ukiyo-e), including a triptych of the Taira Ghosts by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) sold for £26,000 and a mountainous river landscape by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) sold for £32,500.