GUEST: I know that it's from Japan.
APPRAISER: Okay.
GUEST: It was bought there in about the 1800s.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm. 1800, right.
GUEST: Yes. I have a great-aunt who was an amateur painter, and she went to Japan to study art for a year. And while there, she traveled around a bit and picked up things she loved and brought them back.
APPRAISER: The artist's name is Atomi Gyokushi, and Atomi is the last name and Gyokushi is the first name. And joshi means, uh, woman. Hm. And it's rather rare to see women painters. She was born in 1859. She was very good at drawing cherry blossoms. It's a nighttime scene, and you can see this wonderful owl.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And you can see a little bit the big moon below.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: In maybe April, because you see cherry blossoms in full bloom. The painting is painted on very fine silk, and the, uh, white part of cherry blossoms are in pigments, and they used ink and vegetable pigments. She was born in Tokyo, but went to Kyoto and worked and worked within a school called Shijo. Shijo is a famous painting school. Your great-aunt was there around 1880, so...?
GUEST: Somewhere in the 1880s was my guess.
APPRAISER: Right, right. So, so the artist was maybe around, in her 20s. The painting is lovely. It's big size. You should insure it for $6,000.
GUEST: $6,000?
APPRAISER: Insuran-- yes.
GUEST: Oh, my goodness.
APPRAISER: Right.