ABOUT US

Kagedo explored Japanese art for over 40 years. Our interests included both the classical and the modern, from medieval ceramics to 20th century abstraction.

We founded the gallery in 1983 and were fortunate in our time window. Both commonplace and wonderful things were tumbling onto the market in great numbers from every corner of Japan.  The opportunity to handle many examples of one type combined with the guidance of Japanese dealers taught us how to winnow out what sings from what drops into the background of life. This schooling in connoisseurship was an experience we shared with clients over the decades, in ongoing conversations that brought light to both our lives and theirs.

In time, we came to focus increasingly on the transition from the classical to the modern, the years in which Japan changed dramatically from a traditional, agrarian society into an overwhelmingly urban one. Between roughly 1890 and 1964, formal public and higher education mingled with traditional apprenticeships to bring about a renaissance of the arts. A rising middle class brought new buyers to the market, while government-sponsored exhibitions in counterpoint to private ones created excitement and public conversations in the press about what made Japanese art truly Japanese.

Historically a gift for abstraction long ran through both Japanese applied and fine arts, in everything from folk ceramics to the dramatic balance of empty space in the compositions of genre painters. The way early 20th century eyes took the traditional and made it new again was to us revelatory and compelling. Through it all brilliant craftsmanship continued to be prized as one of life’s gifts.

Aside from this, we have published seven folio catalogues that also wandered through the transitions from the classical to the modern, including ceramics, lacquers, metalwork, furniture, wood and stone carving, textiles, studio basketry, sculpture and Nihonga painting.

While many pieces came through our hands to find homes in private collections, many now reside in the permanent collections of major institutions, including: the Los Angeles Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the San Francisco Asian Art Museum; the Seattle Art Museum; the Denver Art Museum; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Freer Gallery of Art & Arthur M. Sackler Galleries; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; the Morikami Museum of Japanese Culture; the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art; the Victoria and Albert Museum; and the Sannenzaka Art Museum.

Jeffery Cline & William Knospe, Summer 2024
Kagedo Japanese Art