“A shop where finds turn up”

When Mr Jichiro Tanaka was at Shibunkaku, he bought some rather unusual things — Kitano Tsunetomi, Ikeda Shoen, Kawamura Kiyoo, Otake Kokan. They were cheap at the time; now they have been reappraised and fetch good prices. Finds, in other words. Rare things turned up often, too.

I had thought of Mr Tanaka as a connoisseur and a cool head. Then one day I was eating eel at Miyagawa on the eighth floor of the Matsuya department store when he passed the door, spotted me, and came straight in.

“Mr Fukutomi, I have made a terrible purchase at the market and I am in trouble. Is there anything to be done?” He was thoroughly flustered.

“What has happened?”

“A Tomioka Eisen came up and I went after it. The bidding got away from me and I paid far too much.”

“How much did you pay?”

“I am too ashamed to say.”

“If it is that dear, I cannot touch it either.”

“No, the mistake is mine, so I do not mind taking the loss. You are about the only person I can tell.”

So I took it off him at half what he had paid. It is one of the treasures of my collection now.

I remember being amused that even the cool-headed Mr Tanaka could come unstuck like that. He is a likeable man. On questions of authenticity he listens carefully to others, and he is modest with it.

His son is a University of Tokyo graduate with a range of interests, including making independent films — a handsome change of course from a computer company. What will the warm-hearted father and the sharp son make of it together?

I look forward to seeing what this pair gather at Shukado, and to the finds that will turn up.

Shukado Co., Ltd. is the gallery that Chiaki Tanaka opened in Ginza 6-chome, Tokyo, together with his father, one of the finest connoisseurs of our day.

He is now starting something new: Online Gallery Shukado, on the internet.

They have gathered a great many fine things, chiefly Japanese works of art — calligraphy and painting — from the Edo period to the present. Chiaki has an eye that is a match for his father’s.

I believe the day will come, some years from now, when he is recognised as one of the leading connoisseurs in Japan, as a collector and as a gallery owner.

An eye of that kind is not acquired overnight. Effort and experience are needed, that goes without saying; but more than either, what tells is native talent and the surroundings in which a person grew up.

Given how Chiaki Tanaka of Shukado was raised, I think he has it in him to become a great connoisseur.