# Gekko Ogata artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/gekko-ogata/
Profile generated: 2026-05-08T02:14:31.465Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1859-09
- Death date: 1920-10-01
- Nationality: Japanese
- Movements: Ukiyo-e, Meiji-era art
- Common media: woodblock prints (nishiki-e), ink and color painting on paper and silk, book illustration (kuchi-e frontispieces)

## About Gekko Ogata

Ogata Gekkō (1859–1920) was a Japanese painter and woodblock print designer whose career spanned the Meiji and Taishō eras. Born Tai Shōnosuke, he was largely self-taught and adopted the art name Gekkō under the Ogata surname. Working within the ukiyo-e tradition, he developed a distinctive approach that bridged classical Japanese printmaking and the emerging modern sensibilities of his time. Gekkō earned significant recognition, receiving prizes at both national exhibitions and international expositions, and became one of the earliest Japanese artists to build a following outside Japan. His output includes single-sheet woodblock prints, triptychs, paintings in ink and color, and illustrations for literary works. Collectors most frequently encounter his landscapes, historical scenes, bijin-ga, and Sino-Japanese War imagery through museum holdings and the international auction market.

## Common works and media

Gekkō produced multi-color woodblock prints (nishiki-e) in formats including single-sheet ōban prints, triptychs, and serialized compositions. Common subjects include views of Mount Fuji, scenes from the Sino-Japanese War, bijin-ga, episodes from Japanese history and legend, and genre scenes of daily life. Paintings in ink and color on silk or paper are also known, as are illustrated book pages and kuchi-e frontispieces designed for popular novels of the Meiji period.

## Market and appraisal context

Ogata Gekkō's prints appear regularly in the Japanese woodblock print market at major auction houses. Key valuation factors include the quality and freshness of the impression, the condition of the paper and color, whether the work is an original Meiji-period printing or a later edition, and the rarity of the particular series. Landscapes, bijin-ga, and war-scene triptychs tend to attract the strongest collector interest. While Gekkō's market is generally more accessible than that of Edo-period masters, well-preserved early impressions from acclaimed series have achieved notable prices. Collectors and appraisers should watch for later reproductions and verify attribution through block-wear analysis and paper characteristics.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine identity research from museum and library authority sources with auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Ogata Gekkō, biographical data is drawn from the Library of Congress Name Authority File, VIAF, Wikidata, and corroborated by Wikipedia, with market context informed by the artist's documented presence in international auction catalogs.

## Sources

- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr91027948
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2574296
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/266333348/
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/54005315/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogata_Gekk%C5%8D