About 280 works, including Bizen pottery and paintings, are on display in Reuse Gallery Seiga in Minami Ward, Okayama, a 30-square-meter space run by 60-year-old art collector Kiyoshi Oryo.

As the gallery’s name suggests, the idea is to recycle works of art that had been stowed away in individual homes. Unlike precious art handled by antique shops, most of the works at the gallery are priced between ¥3,000 and ¥20,000. Works by noted artists are guaranteed to be authentic by professional appraisers.

Oryo retired early from a private research agency and opened his gallery in September 2013. “I wanted to bring art that had not seen the light of day for some time into the open for art lovers,” he said.

Growing collection

Oryo started oil painting in high school and belonged to Yamaguchi University’s art club. After graduating from the university’s School of Economics, Oryo was hired by a local bank based in Okayama.

When he was 30, he left to join the Okayama Economic Research Institute, where he was in charge of analyzing the economic ripple effects and employment situations of tourist events in Okayama Prefecture.

A year later, Oryo purchased an engraving by French artist Bernard Buffet (1928-99). Since then, he has built up his collection by making the rounds of local and Tokyo art galleries and through auction websites.

Oryo’s collection includes about 2,000 pieces of pottery and about 300 paintings. In 2012, four years shy of his 60th birthday, Oryo’s twin children left home. With his mortgage paid off, he decided to start his own business. “My wife and I will get by as long as we can eat. I want to do something I love,” he recalled thinking.

“Even though I can read a ledger, I’ve never made one. I’ll have to learn from scratch,” Oryo thought at the time. He applied for an entrepreneurial course offered by the city government.

For two months he attended lectures every weekend at a library, getting accounting and advertising know-how from a management consultant specializing in small and medium-size enterprises. He learned how to become licensed as a secondhand dealer.

Earning a name for himself

In June 2013, Oryo retired at the age of 57. In order to cover such costs as the shop’s security deposit and remodeling, as well as an ultralight van for transporting merchandise, he pooled together ¥7.5 million from his own savings and ¥1.39 million in grants from the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, which promotes enterprises and other establishments to create regional demand.

In September that year, he opened the gallery along a road not far from his home.

Oryo is now in his fourth year of business. With a keen eye honed from 30 years of collecting art, his reasonable prices have earned him a name among art lovers, with regular customers coming from as far afield as Hiroshima and Shizuoka.

After utilities and other costs, Oryo’s yearly income is about ¥2 million. When combined with that of his 58-year-old wife, who does welfare-related work, he is slowly whittling away at his savings, but has managed to keep his retirement money untouched.

“I started this gallery thinking how great it would be to put my hobby to work. Even if it doesn’t make much money, I’m not particularly worried,” he laughs. The gallery’s small interior brims full of the love Oryo has for art.

Picking up a piece of Bizen ware, he added: “You don’t know what kind of pattern it will have until after it’s removed from the kiln, and even though they look similar each piece has minute differences. I hope everyone will come on in, pick up [artworks] and feel how wonderful they are.”

Secondhand dealer business license required

According to regulations stipulated in the secondhand articles dealer law, “secondhand goods” are divided into 13 categories including works of art, books, and cash vouchers such as gift certificates.

To buy and sell these professionally, it is essential to obtain a secondhand dealer business license from the prefectural public safety commission. Licenses are even required for personal deals when large numbers of transactions or sizable amounts of money are involved.

With reference to the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry’s guidelines regarding online auctions, the Okayama prefectural police define “dealers” as persons with a fixed quantity of dealings such as sales of ¥10 million and over per year.

Applications are made at local police stations. After submitting a copy of a resident certificate and resume that includes five years of previous employment, a handling fee of ¥19,000 is required. It takes about 40 days for the license to be granted. According to the National Police Agency, 25,862 licenses were newly granted in 2014.