The Japan Ukiyo-e Museum, based on the Sakai collection, was established as a comprehensive ukiyo-e museum in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture in Spring 1982.

The Sakai collection extends back for five generations from Matsumoto his home town: it is internationally known for the collection of more than a hundred thousand ukiyo-e prints, paintings, screens, old books and modern contemporary prints. The exhibitions of the Sakai collection have been held in the Middle East, in the United States, Europe, China and South America and have been received with enthusiasm and admiration by people worldwide, not mention experts and scholars.

The reputation of the Sakai collection is not only established as the largest single collection but as being in excellent condition for fine art, and it includes several dozen extremely rare works that would have been lost had it not been for the efforts of the Sakai collection. It is because Yoshiaki Sakai, the sixth generation of the Sakai family, was the second richest businessman in Matsumoto during the Kansei period (1790s) and established twelve big warehouses behind the store, but was especially an art patron. Therefore many guest of ukiyo-e artists like Hokusai and Hiroshige and literary men and calligraphers from all over Japan had come to visit the Sakai family in Matsumoto. Having such a connection, the Sakai family began collecting ukiyo-e prints and fine art.

Yoshitaka Rihei Sakai (seventh generation) and Touhyoue Sakai (eighth generation) continued to collect them. Yoshitaka was given the library "Koukodou" (connoisseur of things ancient) by Shouzan Sakuma, a progressive Confucian scholar. Yoshitaka's portrait was drawn in Hyaku-nin Isshu Shosei Shou (The Sound of Bells: Hundred poems by hundred poets) by Hiroshige.

Touyoue Sakai (eighth generation) established Sakai Koukodou in I 870 at Kanda Awajicho in Tokyo and through his interest and critical judgment he brought up many students and scholars of ukiyo-e. Shoukichi Sakai (ninth generation) founded "Ukiyo-e" an academic periodical on ukiyo-e (fifty-five number), and scientifically studied ukiyo-e for the first time. During the tenth generation Toukichi and his brothers Teisuke and Senzaburou of the Sakai family, the collection rose to over one hundred thousand prints, still obtaining many others from private collections.

The Sakai collection, which has been systematically selected from all kinds of ukiyo-e by the experts like the Sakai family and scholars, includes representative masterpieces from the early masters to the modern days. It is a "living collection", still buying good ukiyo-e prints and paintings back from all over the world.

The Japan Ukiyo-e Museum is now aiming to collect, examine and exhibit ukiyo-e as being a major part of our international and cultural heritage. When you come to MatsumotoÑ "sightseeing city of the Japan Alps" of Nagano prefecture, please come and see JUM (The Japan Ukiyo-e Museum) and appreciate ukiyo-e Ñ it is truly a cultural image of how life was in old Japan.