No 115


Dear Customers & Friends
Hello from Japan! This is Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.115.Today is already 9th October, and a few days ago I changed the morning coffee from cold one to hot one. Last week I went two auctions, Kobe and Tanba, and got some treasures.
On Monday a new staff joined us. Her name is Hisami, and she has rich experience in interior and Japanese antique market. She had lived for 5 years in San Francisco, and worked as a store manager of Japanese antique shop. Some customers might notice, some wooden items recently listed were got by her, and descriptions are written by her. She especially knows much about wooden items, and knows how to distinguish wood and repair them. Her description is way better than mine ( all our staff's English are better than me ), and she also can suggest how to use Japanese items in Western interior. Now she is studying all kinds of works of our business. Soon she will respond your e-mails too.
Recently I became to feel that I must know more about web and system, and started to study computer programming - 'Perl', 'PHP'and 'SQL'. Studying programming s not easy. Not same as English writing, only a smallest mistake stops the running program. Even if I think I wrote exactly the same as the books, program often returns 'ERROR'. I check all characters and marks with eyes like saucers, but I often can not find the difference. I thought learning program was impossible for me, but I become to know learning program is easier compared to learning rare antique items. I bought a couple of books for each programs, and if a part can not be understood, I read the same explanation part of other books. Other ways of explanation clarify my questions. And anyway everything are in the books, which I want to know. And I can believe almost every descriptions .
Learning about rare antique items has different type of difficulties. Very often answers of questions are not found in books. We must ask some people, but often we can not believe the answers, which are told by others. Sometimes people don't know well about the questions, and sometimes they will give wrong answers intentionally. To see and touch the rare items, we must visit all over Japan, and we often miss the occasions to see rare items. It cost a lot not only money but also time. Famous Kasuri collector Horiuchi san always teaches us, 'You had better keep items as data, with commentaries. Such data must become property of your study and skill.' When I visited her house, she showed me lots of 'kire-cho'( fabric sampler book) she had made over a long time.
I don't know which level I can reach in programming. But anyway what a fun to learn new things! My English is not still good, but way better compared to three years ago. English skills opened the window to the world!Now I am 46 years old, but my age seems not to be late for beginning new studies.We know Grandma Moses started to paint pictures when she was 75 years old. And we want to let you know another great man who lived in Edo period.
His name is Tadataka Inou(born in 1745). He made precise Japanese map in a historical first. He walked every corners of Japan for 17 years, and completed the whole map. Incredible thing is that this 17 years are from his 55 years old to 71 years old. It was the olden times, when people thought the lifetime is 50 years. He run his family business well until 50 years old. And retired the business, he suddenly went out to Edo (Tokyo) and started to study Western astronomia and mathematics. His teacher was almost 20 years younger than him. Before his works, the maps of Japan were like children's pictures, and for the frst time he let people know how figure the real Japan was. His work contributed to the modernization of Japan greatly.
So compared to him, I have more time to study and make some great work! I must hustle more!
Today we are going to list child kimono, haori, tetsubin(iron pot) and fabrics. We will list them about 6 - 7 hours later. We are very happy if you could check them.
Thank you for reading to the end. Have a nice weekend!
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