Today was slim on the ground for shrine sales being the second Sunday of the month, but Tomioka Hachiman did not disappoint. It was a day full of friends from out-of-town and extraordinary porcelain, including a few cute and very atypical Japanese pieces bought for the beach house. The small green iris pickle dish will be perfect on the dresser or night table in the beach house guest room for holding jewelry and other trinkets.
It reminded me of the Korin Ogata screens and the garden at the Nezu Museum.
The small Imari-meets-lustreware dish has all the pretty colors in the downstairs rooms of the beach house. Don’t know how I’ll be using it – perhaps as part of a wall display, perhaps on a stack of books on the coffee table to hold olive and cherry pits.
But the person who had the most fun today was my elder daughter who happened upon a stall selling vintage matchbooks from the 1930s-1950s. We have often seen matchbox covers mounted on pages, but not often the entire matchboxes. The dealer had hundreds of them in three big boxes and she spent significant time sorting through them and putting together a charming collection which we plan to place in a shadow box frame. You’ll note her signature colors of lavender and blue.
The story comes as she was choosing her boxes. Much to her chagrin, another man came up behind and offered to buy zenbu – everything – from the dealer. It hadn’t occurred to us and we were immediately sad to see the entire collection go! Luckily, the dealer offered us a few as “service” gifts for making a purchase before he sold off the boxes. We managed to grab a few historical gems.
The first matchbox, dated 1939, features Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Imperial Hotel, with its stylized logo on one side and Mt. Fuji and an early version of the Shinkansen (bullet train) on the other.
Finished in 1923, the hotel was one of Wright’s masterpieces, famously surviving the Great Kanto Earthquake that year, and in use as the premier Tokyo hotel until 1968 when it was deemed outdated and tragically torn down.
The other matchbox could not have been more timely, featuring the 1948 London Olympics on one side and the 1952 Helsinki Olympics on the other.
Wondering what they might fetch among collectors. Ebay maybe?
Image Credits: Iris photo by Joseph Keating, via Atsuko & Joe, Imperial Hotel postcard via Old Tokyo, all other photos by me.
Ah, the Sunday shrine sales, those were the days, still miss them terribly, our Sundays now are generally spent working in our garden or house, just not the same sadly. Love the little pickle tray and what finds your daughter got, pity about the man who “stole” the others from under her, that’s such a pity, but what can you do? I was thinking the same thing about collectors and how much they would be willing to buy the ones she did manage to secure before I even got to the last sentence, it would be interesting!
I am not sure of the size of the spaces in a printers drawer, the ones you have featured before where people hang them on the wall with different coloured washi paper inserts (by the say, still trying to find one for my daughters room, saw a lovely one somewhere painted white, hanging on the wall with little screw hooks in each one to hang earrings and small jewellery, cho kawaii!) but I am thinking that the matchboxes would be cute displayed in something like that too and your daughter could change them around and intermingle with other small treasures.
When do we expect updates on the beach house, will you be off there soon?
I think the white one you saw with jewelry in it is on the blog. I’ll get you a printer’s drawer this summer – I promise! We just have to figure out the shipping to Europe….
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It’s kind of you to offer to find one for me but the import taxes would kill me! h
Here in Belgium I feel they do not like anything to be imported! I had to have a replacement tea bowl sent to me after a beautiful hand made one I bought in Kyoto was broken when we moved and the taxes cost me an extra 65 euros! There’s a Sunday market in Antwerp and there is a man who sells printing letters, but no drawers, maybe I should ask him if he has them.
Love the matchbooks, especially the imperial hotel. As a newbie Chicago resident I have been reading many books about local people and places and just finished (Loving Frank-I think you would like it) and I agree that it is a crime the Imperial was torn down!
I would really like to have been able to see it. And what they built in its place is so not-special too!
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I saw those matches and passed them by!!! That’s why I have to go slower and think outside of the Japanese shrine sale box! How cool for G!
I don’t know, you do a good job of thinking outside the box if you ask me!!
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Georgia is so chic and has great taste- just like you!! xo
Thank you!! From both of us!
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So cool. You and your daughter have a great eye for art. Thank you for inspiring me to go home and look at my treasures that are hidden away.
What superb finds! Bravo G! Love the shadow box idea! Cant wait to see it in situ!
Shrine Sale Stories…Recent Treasures | Tokyo Jinja
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