UKIYO-E and Anime Celluloids: Their Importance and Similarities in Japanese Culture

Japan has many cultural assets. Ukiyo-e is one of them. A painting that became widespread in the Edo period (1603-1868), with Hokusai Katsushika and Sharaku Toshusai being particularly famous artists of the style. Artistic approval for ukiyo-e, which was disregarded as vulgar in Japan, was very poor, and many works were discarded as if they were garbage. However, the mystique of Japanese culture and the exoticism of ukiyo-e had a great influence on impressionist painters such as Van Gogh, Gauguin, Renoir, and Monet, signalling the beginning of an unprecedented boom in Japonism around the world. Now, top museums exhibit them as one of their most prized possessions.

Anime cels are drawings made on transparent sheets called "cels", which are used in the production process of celluloid animation. Since the establishment of the animation industry in Japan up until the 1990s, anime cels were used predominantly in commercial animation works.
Anime cels were "worthless" once production was finished at the studio. Many anime cels were given away or distributed free of charge during the disposal process, making their way into society in large quantities. Later, as anime production began to increasingly shift to rely on computer graphics, use of anime cels gradually disappeared.
The histories of ukiyo-e and anime cels share many similarities that in many ways seem to be destined. They were originally worthless in Japan, but were then revaluated in the west and increased in value as their scarcity increased.