About JASA

While the  Japanese Art Society of America now addresses all aspects of Japanese art and culture, it traces its origins to a small group of ukiyo-e print collectors in and around New York City in 1973, at a time when Parke-Bernet Galleries (later to merge with Sotheby’s) had begun to develop a market for Japanese art. The first major auction was the 1969 sale of the Blanche McFetridge estate, consisting of ukiyo-e prints once owned by Frank Lloyd Wright, followed by the 1972 sale of the estate of Hans Popper (1904–1971), a Viennese businessman who spent time working in Japan. His collection included masterpieces by Harunobu, Utamaro, Sharaku and Hokusai, and the sale attracted many of the great collectors and dealers of the era, including Richard Pillsbury Gale (1900–1973) in Minnesota, Felix Tikotin (1893–1986), a dealer living in Switzerland, and Nishi Saiju (1927–1995), the first Japanese dealer to attend a sale in the United States.

JASA offers lectures and discussions by eminent figures in the world of Japanese art and culture, covering a wide range of topics. Members are able to go “behind the scenes” to visit museum storage areas, private collections and leading galleries.

JASA communicates with an increasing national and international audience through its newsletter and its biannual journal Impressions, recipient of the 2009 Donald Keene Prize for the Promotion of Japanese Culture, awarded by the Donald Keene Center, Columbia University. Both publications are free to paying members.

JASA also sponsors important exhibitions, such as Designed for Pleasure: The World of Edo Japan in Prints and Paintings, 1680–1860, shown at Asia Society in New York City, Spring 2008. Order a copy of the Designed for Pleasure exhibition catalog here.