Japanese Antiques
Japanese antiques have been admired throughout the world for their exquisite workmanship and their simplicity and beauty. It may be a bit difficult for you to go to Japan to tour these collectibles in person, but now these antiques are available for your shopping pleasure online, directly from Japan.
One form of antiques is traditional Japanese furniture, or Tansu, which refers to a style going back to the 7th century. These are generally wooden cabinets and trunks made in the traditional Japanese manner. Is has a certain similarity to Chinese antiques of the period. The use of Japanese furniture, and most of the antiques and collectibles we have available to us today com from the period of the Meiji restoration, which is after 1868. That is when Japan abandoned the feudal system and the capitol was moved to Tokyo.
If you are in the market for Japanese antiques and collectibles, it is necessary to be able to recognize some of the features of the genuine item. Antique Japanese furniture is unfinished inside. Drawers do not have guide bars, but slide on boards that they rest on. Wooden pegs are generally used to put the furniture together. In later items, in the beginning of the 20th century, sometimes iron nails are used.
The straight lines and simplicity of Japanese furniture have made them popular throughout the world, but usually through copies. Real antiques and collectibles are harder to obtain. Woods used include cedar and cypress and occasionally the rarer paulownia wood. Frontal portions of chests are drawers are often made from heavier woods such as cherry, chestnut or persimmon. Different lacquers are used to cover the furniture, including transparent ones and those that are opaque, including red and black lacquer.
For example, a Japanese Furniture Mizuya Kitchen Chest, an antique from before 1920 is available online. Cedar and cypress woods are used with a geometrical type of decoration painted in lacquer on the wood in the front. The chest has no legs, which is typical in a society where people sat on mats on the floor. Some Japanese furniture can be quite simple, though beautiful, and many of these items are quite small, in that they were made for Japanese sitting on the ground. A red lacquer table with black accents is only 19 inches tall, with a matching mirror. Various ceramics and jugs go perfectly with this furniture. Hibachi gourds are decorated with scenes of mountains, boats and rivers. Lovely sake jugs have ornamental Japanese writing on them. Authentic Japanese tea sets can be added as well. The accents that these ceramics add to the furniture enhance their authentic Japanese feeling.
Other Japanese antiques and collectibles are vintage Japanese kimonos. The authentic materials for kimonos are silk, cotton and linen, never synthetic materials. Obis are the decorative belts worn around the kimonos. Authentic Japanese fabrics include Aizome, which is dyed with indigo dye or “Ai” in Japanese. The dye is now synthetically made. Some of the designs are made using a paste that stops the dye, and leaves the design or pattern in which the paste was painted as a white area. These items are known as Shibori, similar to other tie-dyed crafts.