No 131

Dear Customers & FriendsHello from Japan! This is Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA'S News Letter No .131.Last week was very busy week - began Bizen Ware at Tour J Artisan, attended new auction in Shizuoka prefecture, recruiting and interviewing new staff and arranged stock rooms ( recently we rent one more room for stocks). At the end of busy week I went my favorite 'Sento'(public bath), and allayed my fatigue.Some customers may noticed, we didn't have enough fabric bolts from mid January to beginning of February. We attended many auctions also in January, but offered items were less than other months at almost all auctions. In Japan, New Year's Day week is holiday and 'ubudashi-ya' ( seller who buy kimono and antiques from ordinary family) san are also difficult to get new items from ordinary family. The situation above had to be the same in these past years, but this year we felt items were less than before.We hope the situation will be definitive. If the items become less, prices must be higher, and we should offer our items at more expensive prices. But in these three years, we had similar experiences. We were asked from a few customers about the future of fabric listing, but we think the situation will be better near future. (Just yesterday, we got about 4 or 5 boxes of bolt at fair prices - although the prices were slightly higher than usual. We can offer them this week! ) About the kimono fabric bolt, we buy them from 'discount kimono market', and items are ordinary from dead stock of kimono retailers. ( If we buy them from regular channel, prices must be way expensive. ) Sometimes we wonder how long we can offer silk fabric bolts at these prices. There are some figures, which may relieve us.--- Market Size of Kimono 1800 billion Yen ( mid 1980s) 600 billion Yen (2005)So the market size dramatically shrank, but still 600 billion yen remains. And we can imagine lots of dead stocks of 1990s remain, and they will come to our market constantly. BUT, someday in the future, the day must come when we can not have enough kimono to sell. Kimono fabrics have great quality and exotic charm, and people will cut them for their handicrafts everyday. We recently become to think one of our important mission is selling modern Japanese textiles (and other crafts). If the modern textile and craft sell more, Japanese artisans can inherit their techniques and traditions. We began 'Tour J Artisan', and are trying to sell Japanese handicrafts. Already bamboo bags by Takae san sold well, and some of Bizen wares by Wakimoto san were also sold. Thank you very much for placing orders at our website!We are looking forward to accomplishment of tsume-tsuzure bags, and also planning to visit Bingata dyer in Okinawa. We also have a contact with 'Ai dyer' in Shikoku. He is one of famous 'Ai-shi', and says he will dye fabrics by weight. Visiting his workshop and introducing how natural ai made must be exciting for our customers. But we are wondering what fabrics will be the best for our customers. It may be cotton, but what types of cotton and how about thickness and width do you want? Or selling products like 'Natural Ai Shibori Scarf ' ' Natural Ai Dyed Kiku Motif T Shirt' ' Natural Ai Dyed Jeans' may be better ? If you have any idea about natural ai fabric and products, we are very happy if you let us know. By the way you must know much about Ichiro and Yuka, so we would like to introduce also about our charming staff here. Today I would like to introduce Kayo san 's unique character. She is our oldest staff, and writes emails to you. She is very warm hearted person, and now she leads Ichiroya's high touch service. She learned English at a college, studied in Cambridge for a year and worked in Disney World of United States. Always she writes emails at with incredible typing speed, and we have 100% confidence in her writings because she never forget hospitality mind. She has many hobbies, and one hobby is seeing cinemas. She has special ability to get free tickets of previews. She often goes free previews, which must be limited for fortunate persons. We can not believe but her applicants by post cards seem to win at incredibly high ratio. She says there are some writing know-hows to be selected, but we feel she must have a magic. She is also crazy at 'manzai'( comic backchat ). Yuka also loves manzai, so the conversation of these two persons about manzai can not be recognized by other persons. At her biodata summary, she writes she loves snow board. I have never seen her boarding. Recently she goes a gym, which Hisami san ( the manager of Antiques ICHIROYA ) also goes. They sometime come across at the pool. And I hear that Kayo san is learning Yoga at that gym.I have never seen how she is doing yoga, but I imagine she wants to be able to drink long nails.Kayo san is really a warm hearted and magical person!
Thank you for reading to the end. Today we will list men's juban, chirimen goods, hakoseko, vintage post cards, samurai figure, tea ceremony set and others. We will be very happy if you could check them.In addition we would like to offer you '10 Kimono & 10 Haori Pack' only for news letter readers again. Sometimes our stock rooms become full of items, and we need to sell them by the gross. They have some stains, and not good items for site listing. But most of them are silk ,and will be good material for handicraft, and some kimono may be sold at ebay auction. Price is 98 USD. It weighs 12kg to 16kg ( different weight for each boxes), and if we send them by sea, the shipping costs will be 60- 80 USD. We can make 12- 15 boxes. So if you need this bundle box, please let us know. We will send the to the first 12-15 customers.
Bizen ware listing at Tour J Artisan will end 19 Feb. We selected best items at his kiln. We think the opportunity to get Wakimoto san's best items is rare. We are very happy if you could check them again, and select your favorites among them. Bizen ware fits very well with your antique kimono and especially natural ai dyed cotton items. Don't miss this opportunity!
Thank again!
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