The Obsessive Fascinate Me

“A general unease pervades, due in part to the feeling of being a bull in a china shop,” Mr. Heminway said, “but, more significantly, due to the suspicion that one is looking too deeply into the well, one is eavesdropping on the soul.”

To be sure, Mr. Korff lives and breathes this stuff — reading books about ceramics, checking the internet sites of Japanese dealers daily. “It’s the first thing I do when I get up in the morning,” he said. “It’s all-consuming.”

“Of all my clients, I don’t know of any who study the market, know the history, are more connected than he,” said Robert Yellin of the Yakimono Gallery in Kyoto. “He often gets information about what’s going on in Japan before I do. The guy is totally, ballistically nuts, in the most positive way.”

Wiry and diminutive (he’s 5-foot-4), Mr. Korff, 62, grew up in New York City, where his mother taught modern dance, and his father taught drama in YMCA’s. He spent his summers at Buck’s Rock, a creative work camp, since both parents were instructors there.

Mr. Korff’s obsessive personality is also evident in his collection of vintage steel bikes from the 1970s and ’80s — he owns 10 — which he rides exclusively. He cycles at least 40 miles a day around Prospect Park — except on Saturdays, when he runs six miles.

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