About Me

Tokyo Jinja…in Doha

I am an American antiques dealer, design historian and “trailing spouse” living in Tokyo, Japan for the last nine years with my husband and two beautiful daughters. We have just moved from our adopted home in Japan to a very new and different one in Doha, Qatar. Come join me in adventures throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe and America, looking at decorative and fine arts. Also, experience my trials and travails as I renovate and decorate a Victorian beach cottage from halfway around the world and chronicle my interior design projects.

Always able to spot the proverbial needle in a haystack and sort the valuable from the junk, I have spent years combing Tokyo flea markets, better known as shrine sales, for treasures each week for clients around the world. Porcelain, textiles, woodblock prints, baskets, vintage fishing floats, and katagami stencils are just some of the finds that have come my way. Here in Doha the discoveries will be different, but I am already finding textiles, trim, carpets and inlaid furniture. And there is nothing I like better than imagining and researching an object’s past, finding a modern-day use for it and writing a post about it to share with my readers. I also write the Provenance column each month over at Cloth & Kind which offers a scholarly nod to the history of iconic styles in textile & design.

Trained as a historian at Princeton University, I cut my eye teeth at the 26^th Street flea markets in New York and Les Puces in Paris and honed my Asian expertise along Hollywood Road in Hong Kong  before throwing myself into the Japanese antiques world. I relish the opportunity to share my new adventures with you. I’ll continue to be out there at the forefront of the search for the antique, the handicraft, the artistic and the artisanal. Tokyo Jinja is a state of mind, no matter where my body may reside.

I love to hear from readers and fellow bloggers – comments and questions are the food that feeds me! Please feel free to email me at jacquelinewein[at]yahoo.com. Antique sourcing and wholesale enquiries welcome and you’ll see more on that front as I get the business side of Tokyo Jinja up and running in the coming months.

For more on our transition, you might enjoy the posts in the Doha Move category.