Dear Customers & Friends
Hello from Japan! This is Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No 58.We are very sorry for this week's our vacation. We wanted to take holidays( :-) ) , but if we didn't take holidays, we had to have difficulty to collect enough kimonos to be listed, because most of kimono auction (for dealers and retailers) didn't held for summer vacation. Please forgive us for our holidays.Just a few hours ago our family came back from Amami Oshima Island! Tour is fantastic and educational! I often go to Niigata and Sendai, which are in the northern part of Japan, where there are lots of snow, hard frost and severe life.Amami Oshima Island is completely different. It is one of the southernmost islands - between Okinawa Island and Kagoshima. Here is the map of Amami Oshiam Island. http://www.amami.or.jp/english/amami.gifIts climate is semitropical - just similar what you may imagine - vivid blue green sea, coral reef, tropical flowers, banana, sugarcane, and what most we moved is the star-filled night sky. If you live in rural district, sky full of stars may not unusual, but we rarely see such lots of stars. We swam in the sea near the hotel, ate native fare, paddled canoe through the mangrove, and I(ICHIROYA) went fishing ( and got 2 big fish!). As many customers already know, Amami Oshima Island is famous for its tsumugi - Oshima Tsumugi. Oshima Tsumugi is one of the highest quality of silk tsumugi textile, ( another highest quality silk tsumugi textile is Yuki Tsumugi ) and very popular for komon kimono textile. Genuine Oshima Tsumugi, which is dyed with Teichigi and mud ('Hondoro'), and hand woven, cost approx $1000 - $3000 for a kimono. Here is a brief English page of Oshima Tsumugi. http://www.amami.or.jp/english/tumugi.html
Vacation in the semitropical island is comfortable, but real life of Amami Oshima Island seemed to be very very harsh just until our mother's generation. We heard from a women ( in her 50's and her mother is 97 years old ) about island's life. Especially a thanatophidia named 'Habu' made life harsh. Poison of the Habu is very danger, until the blood serum was made, approx 30 persons a year were bitten by this thanatophidia and half of them were dyed. Now for the blood serum and the advance of the emergency medical care the victim rare dye, but nearly the same people continued to be bitten every year. We heard and were showed the photos about the poison of the Habu. It melts the intramuscular tissue, so if the site of a Habu bite was near the heart victim often couldn't survive. And if the bite was in the foot and arm, victim often lost their fingers and muscles. She said that only a few days ago her family member saw the glimpse of the tail of a snake near her house, she and her family looked for the Habu for several hours around and inside of her house. Until they found it, they could not feel safe at their house. ( They finally find the Habu in son's room.) Most victim are bitten during their field labors. We tourist can keep away from cane field, but farmers in olden times had to work in the cane field to earn for their families and heavy tribute. Beside a tribute people had to give up the Oshima Tsumugi textile, which were woven by all families. A woman we talked told us that she can woven Oshima Tsumugi, and almost every similar age women can woven. She learned her technique from her mother, but inheritance stopped at her age.We knew about Habu before this trip, but I really didn't feel how serious it was. Once we see the photos of victim, we can not walk into the cane field without fear. Amamioshima Island and other Okinawa and small island are in the semitropical, and had produced many unique textile and dying work, like Bashofu, Miyako Jofu, Bingata Dying. Habu live all these tropical islands, and have been created serious threats to ordinary people.
We have more story about Amami Oshima. I will write in later news letter again.Today we have listed some vintage cotton and kimono fabric and bolt. We have also relisted some items, which are not-listed recently (because of our system problem). You may find some items you missed. We are very happy if you could check them.http://www.ichiroya.com/item/search.php?pg=0&md=0823
Thank you for reading to the end. Let's start autumn sale season now!Arigatou gozaimasu!
Ichiro & Yuka WadaKimono Flea Market "ICHIROYA"http://www.ichiroya.com
e-mail: info@ichiroya.comaddress: Asia-shoji Bldg.301 1841-1 Nishi 1 chome Wakamatsu cho Tondabayashi city Osaka 584-0025 JAPANTEL&FAX ****( international number ) - 81-721-23-5446