Should you Frame your Japanese Art Prints? - artelino 

I play with my toys. I don't keep them "mint in box". I also only collect what I would love and never want to sell. I pay what I can afford, and I don't worry about my heirs after I'm dead. When I select an image I love, I want to live with it. I frame it and put it on the wall and experience it as I go through the days of my life. Occasionally, I'll take something down off the wall and put something else up. But that just makes it more pleasurable when I get around to restoring the one I put in storage to display again. I'm no expert, but Im told that a lot of reproductions have a high degree of fidelity to the originals... so much so that sometimes only an experienced eye can tell the difference. If that's the case, I don't really care if it's 150 years old or 40 years old. Hokusai's Manga means a great deal to me. I have a good reproduction set. I also have reproduction sets of Hiroshige's 53 Stations of the Tokaido Road and Hiroshige and Eisen's 69 Stations of Kiso Kaido. I would never be able to afford originals of all those, but I can afford reproductions that are accurate and handmade. I even have a shelf full of large books that reproduce ukiyo-e full size by means of lithography. That is fine too if it's done well. I wouldn't be without my Taschens. There are different kinds of collectors. Some care about authenticity and some just care about the art's image. I love art! Bring on the "cheap" reproductions. I love them.

You only live once, I say frame it up. I want to be able to look at it everyday. Keep the art in low light and ideally in museum quality glass, I think you will be good.

Thanks for that its a valid discussion. I have a number of beutiful prints on washi only very new and they are going on the wall after some careful framing. They were not purchased as an investment but to show others what wonderful aitisans Japan had in their history. If I was rolling in cash I would indeed love to be a collector and archive works but my lotto win has not come yet. 2020 is going to be a big year for you Dieter be sure you work on the google keyword ads as I have search for prints for a number of years but have never had your site presented to me. RU-vid brought me here with search results for "Hanging Japanese art" Thought I should let you know. Love your work and thanks again.

thank you so much for this video. it has been extremely helpful! now im just thinking of how to best store my valuable prints grrr

I have a lovely set by mokuhankan and need to answer exactly this question :)

Very grateful for this info, I've been struggling with this dilemma as I plan to buy my first valuable print. I think this settles for me that they should not be displayed, now I just need to decide how to store them properly.

Doesn't museum grade glass block UV rays and protect from fading?

what about museum glass?

is there somewhere you would suggest for reproductions that are ethical? I'd like to have some Hasui Kawase on my wall but I've never known where to buy prints from that produced legally

Does acid free paper help in storage? Does UV resistant glass help if framed? Thanks

Nice, it's a shame you don't get more traffic on these videos

Thank you for sharing that opinion, I have just purchased my first print which is an original Hasui with still very vibrant colour. I was intending to display but will now be purchasing a reproduction to go with it. Do you have any recommendation for which type of paper is best for reproductions? I see some are printed on canvas and others on archival paper etc.

I just bought my first two "real" prints, intending to frame and display them under museum glass in a relatively dark room. I'm sad to learn that even with precautions, this will devalue or ruin them. I should have done more research before jumping in. But it's good to know to avoid buying nice prints going forward, if I'm not content to store them out of sight. Is it okay (or at least less irresponsible) to buy very recent editions for display? Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise.

hi, do you have the same advice for Shin Hanga? specifically 1950s? thank you!

absolutely yes to framing it! putting it into a frame does NOT effect or lower its value in anyway. you can get UV coated glass that will prevent UV rays from getting to the print when it is framed. it will protect the print and the colors of the print. it is very irresponsible to not frame the prints, especially if they are valuable. everything said in this video is all very old school beliefs and thought processes. the modern glass we have now is 99% transparent and blocks out all UV rays so there is no degridation to the print.

That kind of stinks but it is very helpful if I were to start collecting.

With digital copiers so advanced now, why not copy your original for framing? I'm struggling with not taking mine out of the folders, such a waste, so I take a different one out each night to enjoy on an easel and put it away at sunrise.