The oldest woodblock prints in the collection are from 1810-1820 to the Edo period but most of them date back to 1890 and the Meiji period. There are especially many woodcuts by the artist Yõsu Chikanobu (1838-1912).

Alfred and Hélène's daughter Kerstin's husband, the journalist and writer Ernst von Wendt, shared Hélène's interest in Japonism and acted as intermediary and negotiator for the purchase of the woodcuts.