The Hodgeman Collection

Japanese woodblock prints, or ukiyo‑e, first flourished during the Edo period (1603–1868), when a growing urban population sought affordable art that reflected the drama, fashion and landscapes of their world. Artists such as Hokusai, Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi and Kunisada worked with highly skilled carvers and printers to transform designs drawn on paper into multiple impressions on washi, using carved cherry wood blocks and natural pigments. These prints were never intended as rarefied luxuries; they were the popular visual culture of their day, sold in shops and on street corners, pinned to walls and collected in albums.

Over time, ukiyo‑e evolved from early images of courtesans and kabuki actors to sophisticated landscape series that shaped how Japan was seen both at home and abroad. Hiroshige’s Tokaido views, for instance, captured the poetry of travel along the old road between Edo and Kyoto, while Hokusai’s famous wave and bridge designs explored the drama of nature and human ingenuity. By the late nineteenth century, these prints were eagerly collected in Europe and America, influencing Western artists from the Impressionists to the early modernists and helping to define what we now think of as “Japanese” art.

Our forthcoming auction, “The Hodgeman Collection,” celebrates this rich history through a carefully assembled group of Edo‑period woodblock prints. Formed over a lifetime by a dedicated South Australian collector, the collection reflects decades of connoisseurship, patience and curiosity about the many schools, subjects and formats of ukiyo‑e. From actor portraits and bijin‑ga to poetic landscapes and rarer specialty formats, these works chart both the development of the genre and the personal taste of a collector deeply engaged with Japanese culture.

This auction is the first in a planned series of five dedicated sales of The Hodgeman Collection, offering collectors and enthusiasts a rare opportunity to follow a single collection as it unfolds over time. Each instalment will present a different facet of the collection, allowing bidders to build coherent groupings and to appreciate the breadth and depth of one individual’s lifelong passion. As the series progresses, the story of the collection—and of ukiyo‑e itself—will become clearer with every catalogue.

By beginning the series with Edo‑period prints, we shine a light on the foundations of Japanese printmaking: the period when the collaboration of artist, carver and printer reached its most confident expression. “The Hodgeman Collection” invites both new and seasoned buyers to engage with these images as they were meant to be seen: as living works on paper that still speak vividly across centuries, and as part of an ongoing journey that will continue through the four auctions to follow.