Dear Mr. Yamamura’s suitcase (because that is the name painted on the leather case and somehow, I am sure you belonged to a man), I was lucky enough to stumble across you at the shrine sale the other day, picking you up because you are a beautifully preserved example of early 20th century luggage, but if you could talk, oh, the stories you could probably tell! I bought you for decorating purposes, but in the days you have been in my home, I have become obsessed with trying to research your path across Manchuria and the Tientsin Concession in hopes of dating you more specifically and understanding what might have brought you there. If my Japanese was better, maybe I could even have figured out who you belonged to – a 1920s salary man named Yamamura for one of the big zaibatsu (business conglomerates)? A government official with a mission of imperialist goals?
Did you watch as Japan seized control of Manchuria (the large northeastern corner of present day China) from Russia between 1904 – 1905, taking control of the Russian built railroads and creating the South Manchurian Railway, which established its headquarters in Dairen? Or was that before your time? I think it may have been.
Five Yamato Hotels were also owned and operated by the railway between 1910-1940, serving stops along the line. The Yamato Hotel in Dairen was a showstopper in the grand European style, both on the outside and the inside…
…but you seemed to have stayed in the Dairen Mansyu Hotel, making it seem like perhaps your owner was not such a big wig. I have not been able to find any additional information on that hotel, so it is a dead-end, at least for now.
You definitely spent significant time in Manchuria, as the hotel labels on your suitcase continue to reveal. But was that time during Japan’s years of influence, or after their full of seizure of control in 1931?. The Anto Hotel (red oval sticker below) is located just past the railroad station in Antung, and it would certainly seem to imply that you were there in the 1930s, as the Antung Province was first created in 1934 as an administrative region of the now Japanese controlled Manchuria, newly called the Empire of Manchukuo.
If you look closely at this 1930s postcard, you can see your hotel in the far distance from the station. I wonder, did your room have a good view?
You probably arrived via the station above, on the Mukden to Antung Railway, the main mode of transport, if not the only one, through southern Manchuria at this time. Perhaps you even worked for the railway, as over 35,000 Japanese did by 1910.
I would guess that you travelled through Mukden as well and that the Shenyo Hotel in “Mubuden” (the first hotel sticker on that photo above) was simply a bad English spelling of Mukden.
But things with you get tricky from the largest label found on your lovely lid. The Yamato Hotel chain doesn’t seem to show any properties in the Tientsin Concession, an extremely unusual city as it was an open trading port in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like Shanghai, it existed as its own sort of miniature world, with eight foreign concessions in the district, including that of France, Great Britain, Japan, Russia, Italy, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Belgium. Eric Liddel, the missionary runner (remember him from Chariots of Fire?) was born there and I believe President Herbert Hoover lived there in his earlier life.
The international concessions looked nothing like China and a lot like Europe. The Japanese concession certainly looked as Western as the others…
Tientsin had an extremely famous and fancy hotel, the Astor House…
…with quite its own luggage label.
But there is no mention of any Yamato Hotel there whatsoever. My theory is that after the Japanese seizure of Tientsin in 1938, while they respected foreign concessions for the most part until 1941, perhaps they occupied the properties in their enemy’s territories and changed a few hotel names? So my final guess is that you travelled in the late 1930s, just before the war. I am hoping to do more research, but maybe I’ll get lucky and a reader will have some extra insight and/or better language abilities.
So for those of you who have been wading through all this history and had enough, on to the juicy decorating ideas on how to use Yamamura-san’s suitcase. Perhaps Joanna Madden’s stack is a bit excessive, but she does have a special way of arranging large multiples!
I am desperately wishing to visit Chicago to see an extremely dear friend, but also to finally get over to Jayson Home & Garden.
We all know I am a sucker for anything that looks like this – One of those amazing photos you only find in Skona Hem – and I love the pair of cases stacked underneath.
A small stack of vintage luggage makes a lovely and unusual night table. Stores quite a bit of junk too!
In a too “leggy” room, there is nothing like a stack of old leather suitcases, serving as a side table.
And one last photo from one of the old magazine spreads that changed my life (can a magazine spread change your life?), Carolina Bunce’s Hudson River valley house, which did just that. One of these days I’ll feature the whole piece from 1993 and show how she has more recently re-deployed her amazing American antiques in an unlikely setting out in California, having already featured a few of her rooms here.
The shame of my situation is that the flea market dealer had a second smaller suitcase, with a broken handle, so I didn’t buy it. In retrospect, it was easily repairable, but more than that, I wonder what clues it might have held about Mr. Yamamura…
Image credits: 1, 5-6 & 9. me, 2. via eBay seller yangshulin1971, 3-4, 10-12. via AN AMERICAN IN CHINA: 1936-39 A Memoir, 7. via flickr photostream of Kernbeisser, 8. eBay seller yuhong1962, 13. via Country Living February 2011, photo credit: Lucas Allen, 14. via Lonny magazine June/July 2010, 15. via Skona Hem, 16 & 17. so sorry, missing credit as I picked these up on Pinterest somwhere
Vanessa
i’ve got a suitcase from france that was my grandpa’s that you’d probably like….maybe i should do something decorative with it…if only i had more, i’d stack them up!
Tokyo Jinja
keep your eyes open!
you are sure to find more….question is, french labels only? If so, then we really need to get serious about a trip to Les Puces….
L. A. Knifton
I really enjoyed this post!
Tokyo Jinja
Thanks! Took a quick peek at your blog and it looks very interesting too! I am a secrect anglophile, Paris flea market junkie, native New Yorker, living in Tokyo….
lisa jardine
wow, amazing amount of research. very cool. the challenge with using your new purchase is showing it off vertically or at least so that people can see the top – the best part!
Tokyo Jinja
good point!!
I love the painted kanji on top.
Margaret Lambert
Amazing what tantalizing clues can lead to.
My (eccentric!) mother embarrassed her parents by traveling with an assortment of paper bags. I have the Halliburton ‘Zero’ luggage they bought her in the 1940s, ranging from nearly miniature to too large to carry. I could stack it!
Tokyo Jinja
That sounds way cool!
Heather
Wow! What a treasure you have found. I love the labels he left on the suitcase, and how you’ve tracked his path. I think this would make a great book, but at the very least a fun new collection! You definitely need more…
Tokyo Jinja
Someone else has suggested a novel….quite the idea!
Tansu photo with blue and white inban please!!!!!!!!!
Kathleen
As a travel obsessed individual, I particularly enjoyed this post. Also, your “extremely dear friend in Chicago” welcomes you anytime!
Tokyo Jinja
Maybe you should just go to Jayson and visit it all for me….
Angela
A very interesting story. I love stacked old luggage, a statement, something unusual and different. Which shrine sale did you buy from, maybe you can hop back and keep your fingers crossed that the smaller one is still there, Kawagoe?
Tokyo Jinja
Kawagoe!
india
there’s a novel hiding in this suitcase
Tokyo Jinja
I just have to find it…..
Josh
I’m sure you could make some awesome antique watch straps from that case!
Tokyo Jinja
I’ll keep my eyes open for something damaged beyond repair that could be cannibalized…
Marianne
I found this post intriguing… Read like a good book… Love the ideas I would never think of!
Angela
28th passed, I thought…..
Mary
Hi there,
I found this map from 1931 that shows the Yamato Hotel in Tianjin on the corner of Naniwa and Hanazono Streets (written in English) in the Japanese Concession-
http://www.geocities.jp/keropero2000/china/tianjin06.html
I’ll try and find some more info for you.
Wishes,
Mary
Mary
I also forget to mention that the labels on the same photo as the Mansyu Hotel label are from Korea. Seems like Yamamura-san was a busy man!
Tokyo Jinja
OMG! You are my favorite new reader! I cannot wait to post all this – don’t know if I have time tomorrow, but if not, the next day. Thank you so much!!! I’d love to know what brought you to this post and where your interests lie too….. Cheers! Jacqueline
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Mary
Wow! Thanks for the compliment! I’ve been reading your blog for ages. I love flea markets too but have to confess to being more of a recycle shop junkie as I find them to be less overwhelming and cheaper. Unfortunately after March 11 my husband insisted we leave the Kanto area, so now I’m stuck in the mountains of Yamanashi with no outlet (besides blogs) for my addiction!
I’ve got a lot of pleasure out of reading your posts, so I thought it was time I contributed something (besides the fact that I love a good mystery). To be more specific about the place Yamamura-san stayed in Korea. It was called the Onnuri Ryokan, which I believe was in Seoul (based on the results of my Googling!).
Wishes,
Mary
Tokyo Jinja
Watch for the update post – this is all too good not to share!!! And I love finally “meeting” readers I don’t know. Yamanishi mountains – wow – that seems like it would be a hard transition! Best and thanks again! Jacqueline
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style court
Jacqueline —
Terribly creative post. The labels on your find are terrific. Love the patina, too. I also think you could use this post as the jumping off point for a screenplay 🙂
Tokyo Jinja
Another commenter suggested a novel….Where to find the time is always the issue! Ironically, my 12 year old is fully enmeshed in exactly this time period in her SS class (and proudly got 100% on the hardest Geography test of every tiny Pacific island I have never heard of today). They will culminate in a trip to Hiroshima. As a result of the original post, her teacher is way into this idea of a truly “primary source,” so this may take us on yet another journey. Thanks for reading!!!
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Anita
I think this was your most ambitious post to date. I certainly enjoyed it & I think your other followers did too. Thanks you!
Tokyo Jinja
I am really enjoying the historical nature of these suitcase posts! Thanks for your comment!
bio screen 3 pack
Hello! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be ok.
I’m absolutely enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.