History

Hotei Japanese Prints was established in 1982 and is based in Leiden, the Netherlands.
During the first six years of its existence, the owner, Chris Uhlenbeck, operated from home. In 1988, in a joint venture with Christer von der Burg, Ukiyo-e books was founded, a specialized bookshop dealing with reference materials relating to Japanese prints. Hotei Japanese Prints and Ukiyo-e books established themselves in a small 18th century building in central Leiden, with one employee, and in 1992 moved to bigger premises. 

From 1990 onwards, publications started to appear and in 1995 Hotei Publishing began its turbulent existence. In total more than 70 books appeared under the Hotei Publishing label, and the imprint was one of the major forces in Japanese art publishing until 2010. The historically most important books include Amy Reigle Stevens's The New Wave: 20th century Japanese Prints from the R.O. Muller Collection (1992), Crows Cranes, and Camellia's on Ohara Koson (2000), Kawase Hasui, The complete works (2 vols) in 2003,  The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints (2005), John Carpenter's Reading Surimono (2008), a monumental work on the Lusy collection in Zurich and in 2016 Waves of Renewal: Modern Japanese Prints 1900-1960. Since the Hotei Publishing imprint was discontinued we have been working  with the Belgian publisher Ludion, who has successfully released three titles produced by Hotei staff, including Jim Dwinger's monumental volume on Hiroshige

Hotei Japanese Prints moved in 2005 to Japan museum  SieboldHuis, a museum dedicated to Philipp Franz von Siebold, the German physician in Dutch governmental service in the early 19th century and based on Deshima, the small fan-shaped island in the harbour of Nagasaki. A selection from the c. 40.000 objects amassed by von Siebold can be seen in a beautiful 18th century canal house on the Rapenburg in Leiden.

Chris Uhlenbeck (1954) has curated numerous museum shows over the last 35 years, including a major exhibition on Japanese Erotic Prints (Kunsthal Rotterdam, 2005, with the catalogue written with his wife, Margarita Winkel, titled: Japanese Erotic Fantasies: Sexual Imagery of the Edo Period), Yoshitoshi, Masterpieces from the Ed Freis collection (2011) , a travelling exhibition which was shown in Pasadena and Leiden, and various exhibitions for the Sieboldhuis including Hiroshige Shaping the Image of Japan (2008), Shin Hanga, The modern Japanese Print (2022), The riddles of Ukiyo-e (2023) and most recently in 2024 the groundbreaking exhibition Shapes and Sizes, The Many Forms of Japanese Prints.

Hotei Japanese Prints currently employs four people:
Leon Oninckx, Philo Ouweleen, Jim Dwinger and Flame Rikkers