Bunpei Usui

[b.hennick]

I came a cross the name Bunpei Usui while learning about a sword that I now own. Any information on this person who was I understand the sensei of the New York Token Kai would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Ted Tenold]

A quick "goog" comes up with him as a painter. Passed on in 1994. Maybe same guy? Info is kinda scant even on a Google search.

[b.hennick]

I understand that he worked for a New York Auction House - Sotheby's or Christies. He evaluated, described swords. I was looking for confirmation and further information.

[Bazza]

Hennick san, to find any mention of Bumpei Usui we have to go back to the 1970s. He was a prominent collector in New York and has been described as "having an active group" (http://home.comcast.net/~colhartley/Ori ... ngArms.htm - the book of "Token Taikai" 1976 lectures, a good read even today). He was also robbed twice, I believe, which led him to auction what remained of his collection. I still have the catalogue of the sale and even as alleged remnants it reads like a dream collection. ANTIQBOOK at http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/collec/53701.shtml lists the catalogue of his 1979 auction as:

 

AUCTION CATALOGUE, Highly Important Japanese Swords. The Collection of Mr. Bumpei Usui, New York, and Other Owners

Sotheby Park Bernet, 1979. F First Edition. A fine copy in the original thin card wrappers as issued. 159 lots, all illustrated. Sale results leaflet tipped in.

And that, Dear Friends, is all I can tell you about Mr Bumpei Usui. He may be the famed artist of the same name, I don't know, but my google search keywords were (with quotes) [ "bumpei usui" sword ] and these also turned up another catalogue at http://www.jegercatalogues.com/mesoamerica.html:

 

59) Ancient Mexico in Miniature: Pre-Columbian Clay Figures

from the Collection of Frances Pratt and Bumpei Usui

Cooper Union Museum, 1966

[large softcover, 6 p., unillustrated]

 

Now, if Bumpei Usui the artist and Bumpei Usui the Japanese sword collector are one and the same (I leave verification of that to another curious mind), the search also turned up his wife http://keithsheridan.com/sale2009_A-K.html:

 

Karl Eugene Fortess (1907-1995)

Untitled (Surrealist Nocturne No. 5) - - c.1940, Lithograph.

Edition 18. Signed and numbered 1/18 in pencil. Inscribed For Usui - Karl in the bottom center margin.

Image size 13 7/16 x 9 3/4 inches (341 x 248 mm); sheet size 17 15/16 x 13 inches (456 x 330 mm).

A fine, rich impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/2 to 2 1/4 inches). A short repaired tear in the sheet edge, well away from the image; a diagonal crease in the bottom right sheet corner, otherwise in excellent condition.

Provenance: Estate of Francis Pratt. Francis and her husband Bumpei Usui were fellow Woodstock artists and friends of Fortess.

$450. Sale Price $337.50

 

Regards,

Barry Thomas.

[b.hennick]

Thanks Barry! I knew that his wife was Frances Pratt but forgot to mention that. I also believe that he started the New York sword study group.

[John A Stuart]

Hi Barry H., If he was a founding member of the New York Token Kai, John Prough, Jim Gilbert or Moses Becerra should have some info about Usui san. They were all officers of that group. John

[b.hennick]

Thanks!

Barry

[jwicks]

Bumpei Usui was an exceptional painter living in NYC. He quit painting after a new Japanese painter, Kuniyoshi, arrived in NYC and began to get critical aclaim that Usui felt should have been his. Despite that he and Kuniyoshi were freinds as well as expats from Japan. He has an amazing collecton of both Kuniyoshi's work as well as his own. They both painted in oils. He headed and taught sword appreciaton at his framing shop on the lower West side. The NYC Japanese Sword Society. He had a fine collection of Katana much of which was sold at auction after a break in and attempted theft at his apartment. Apparantly, a number of swords, but not the finest, were stolen. I recall he was a consultant to the Met Asian division. I was one of his students.