porcelain

Shop Talk…Okura Oriental Art

For me, there are two perfect kinds of antique stores. The first is a carefully curated small shop, while the second is a large unorganized warehouse that you have to search through. Mizue Sasa’s Okura Oriental Art is the former and it is a jewel – my favorite in central Tokyo. She and her husband Yasuhiro Shimizu are celebrating their 10th anniversary of owning Okura this year.

In addition to wonderful tansu and porcelain, Sasa-san has a great mix of hard to find items such as altar candlesticks…

antique maps of Tokyo and Japan, both framed and unframed…

ikebana baskets…

and lanterns.

She is also the only dealer I have found who carries traditional copper rain chains, which are the “gutters” of Japan. These are not antique, but they patinate quickly and easily. An amazing sayonara or housewarming gift!

Sasa-san’s pick? This Meiji period tai (sea bream) jizaikagi yokogi (decoration on hanging hearth pole) is a great piece of folk art. Used over a traditional irori (open sunken hearth) it held the kettle above the flame.

My current pick? This hard to find small size step tansu. Often they are very large and very deep and can be impractical if you don’t have the perfect space.

Sasa-san has a fully detailed on-line catalogue and a loyal customer base that visits often from around the world. She handles on-line sales easily, speaks English and ships just about anywhere. She also has a decorating site with staged rooms – you can purchase a whole look if you like or just browse for ideas. Sasa-san will also help her customers arrange their items and improve their decorating in their home. She is not afraid to tell clients to get rid of stuff (which is unusual here). She will also track down specific items for you – just give her dimensions or good descriptions.

I love the juxtaposition of the poured concrete wall with the tansu and the giant porcelain plate that she shows in the photo below. Sasa-san is interested in mixing antiques with modern furniture, a trend that is just getting off the ground here in Japan.

Here she stages vintage blue and white in the bathroom.

The shop is full of great gifts for the holidays!

Image credits: All shop photos taken by me, courtesy of Okura. Decorating photos by Mizue Sasa.

Dec 1, 2010 By tokyojinja in Interior Design, Shop Talk Tags: antiques, baskets, byobu, folk art, furniture, japanese antiques, lacquer, maps, porcelain, tansu, textiles

Has Imari’s Reputation Been Resuscitated?

I have had a half written post called “Can Imari’s Reputation Be Resuscitated” sitting around in my drafts folder for weeks and now it is time to bring it out, rewrite it, and change its title to the one above. I am not talking about the simpler blue and white underglaze only Imari (which has never gone “out” of style), but instead Ko-Imari (old Imari), the polychrome and gold in-your-face with color Imari. Sometimes accused of being “old-fashioned” and “traditional,” I think it is finally having a well deserved revival in modern settings.

Let’s be clear – People are still collecting Imari, beautiful pieces are in demand and it is often featured in classic interiors. Some designers have been using it all along. You can often catch a glimpse of a piece in a Michael Smith interior. I am referring to using Imari in a new way by pairing it with unexpected partners.

This is the more “expected” model of porcelain display – a bit hard to pull off if you don’t have a grand country manor with generations of accumulation and original paneling.

First to catch my eye was the October 2010 House Beautiful apartment of Nancy Tilghman designed by Daniel Sachs. Amidst the ethnic mixed but modern living room of this Park Avenue apartment sits an Imari bowl on a side table, filled with citrus fruit. Underneath the same table stands a large Satsuma urn (which is basically the same thing for my intents and purposes here in this post).

Then there was the Eddie Ross Thanksgiving tablescape in the October/November issue of Lonny Magazine which featured Imari plates and serving pieces that I wrote about in my last post. The color and design of the decor took its cues from the vibrant colors in the Imari, but what makes it unusual is the unexpected combinations Ross uses. While a crystal chandelier is an expected pairing, rustic wooden beams are not.

The beginning of November brought this Miles Redd designed bedroom featured in New York Magazine. I believe I spy a large Imari charger from John Rosselli above the closet door in the riotously colored bedroom designed for David Keiser.

This third week of November brought the Wendy Haworth Tastemaker Sale on One Kings Lane. She had a number of Imari dishes and bowls listed. All sold out immediately!

I’d love to hear from you with your ideas on how you have or would use your Imari. And don’t limit it to that….What other design ideas or decorative items have you “resuscitated”?

Image Credits: 1. The World of Interiors, February 2009, 2. House Beautiful, October 2010, photo credit: Ngoc Minh Ngo, 3. Lonny Magazine October/November 2010, 4. New York Magazine, November 7, 2010, photo credit: Thomas Loof/Art Department, 5. One Kings Lane

Nov 22, 2010 By tokyojinja in Interior Design, Porcelain and Pottery Tags: Daniel Sachs, Eddie Ross, imari, miles redd, porcelain

Set Your Thanksgiving Table with Imari and Eddie Ross

I have always thought that polychrome Imari porcelain sets a stunning table for the winter holidays. Stylist and flea market guru Eddie Ross agrees in this month’s issue of Lonny Magazine. He uses a mix of antique Imari plates with some great do-it-yourself projects to set a lovely Thanksgiving table. The usual Imari colorway of orangey red, mixed with the cobalt underglaze, and highlighted by greens and yellows is perfect for Thanksgiving – and can be pulled out again at Christmas.

Ross says “The key is restraint. You don’t want a floral fabric and a floral china.” I am not sure I’d call this a restrained table setting, but that is exactly why it is so fabulous. He loves to mix color and pattern in every way he can.

Sweet Mizue Sasa, proprietor of Okura Oriental Art, let me have fun playing with antique Imari plates and serving pieces at her shop. I layered Imari on Imari, but it works with the calm obi table runner and the simple floral arrangement. I think it would also be lovely paired with simple white dishes on a deep orange cloth. A great feature of Imari porcelain is that you can mix and match all kinds of pieces and patterns (and I have even squeezed in a tiny orange-red sake cup) and it looks great together. And mixing is almost always necessary as most “sets” in Japan are sold in groups of 5 (as the number 4 is unlucky). You can change the look and feel of your table simply by highlighting a different color – for instance, playing up the blue instead.

Imagine your turkey and mashed potatoes served on these giant beauties…

Dish your stuffing out of this fluted bowl…

Thanks to Sasa-san and her assistant Eiko for this post. Watch for an upcoming “Shop Talk” about Okura.

Image credits: 1-3 Lonny Magazine October/November 2010, 4-6 me, courtesy of Okura Oriental Art.

Nov 19, 2010 By tokyojinja in Interior Design, Porcelain and Pottery Tags: Eddie Ross, imari, porcelain, Thanksgiving

A Small Saturday Secret…Shrine Sale in Azabu Juban

While not actually a secret, no one ever seems to list or mention the small shrine sale held in the patio square of Azabu Juban. I guess in all fairness, it isn’t an actual shrine sale as there is no shrine, but the feel is the same. No more than 12 dealers come every first Saturday of the month and they usually pack up by 3 p.m. As it is just down the hill from my house, I go regularly and always get lucky. There is something about small sales that makes shopping easier – like going to a favorite boutique instead of a large department store – it just gives you a more focussed view.

There was a bit of everything this past Saturday – lacquer serving pieces and small chests perfect for holding jewelry.

This set of really pretty Imari plates with tiny diapered patterns.

I can imagine them hanging on the wall in Olya and Charles Thompson’s richly colored Brooklyn brownstone.

An adorable collection of tiny shoyu (soy sauce) dishes, particularly the more unusual blue and white and celadon ones, looks like a plate wall display in miniature…

I loved this tiny wooden hibachi (charcoal brazier) with inlaid wisteria. It had its original copper lining and would be perfect for autumn flower displays. I’ve not seen this wooden style so small – it was about the size of a pineapple.

I also loved these two fabulous huge iron hibachi…

…perfect for planting palms in the Schuyler Samperton style. (And if you love palm trees and layered eclecticism make sure to look through her portfolio).

And for myself? OK, I admit I have gone a little crazy – glass crazy that is. Ever since my finds at Kawagoe I am obsessed with blue-green glass, old bottles and floats! I am not sure if my huge bottle will fit where I want it, so what about a small collection of little bottles, just in case?

These two had visible bubbles in the glass and an older hand blown feel.

The smaller bottle had a threaded neck. When I bought it, I hoped to be able to add a spout or pump and use it for liquid soap.

Kind of like this!

More information on the shrine sale schedule can be found in the tab at the top of the blog. Feel free to email me if you have any questions!

Image credits: 1,2,4,5, 6, 8 & 9. me, 3. Vogue January 2010 , photo credit: Francois Halard, 7. Domino April 2007, photo credit: Paul Costello, 10. Unknown

Nov 7, 2010 By tokyojinja in Glass, Metals, Porcelain and Pottery, Shrine Sales and Flea Markets Tags: flea market, glass bottles, imari, japanese antiques, lacquer, Olya Thompson, porcelain, Schuyler Samperton, shrine sale

The Magpie Gene…Vintage Kimono and Judyth van Amringe

I like living with my stuff. I feel safe when it’s around.
Judyth van Amringe

Some expats come abroad with nothing but a few suitcases and rent furniture for their apartments or buy everything new again. But we brought everything we owned, lock, stock and barrel, because I am in complete agreement with Judyth van Amringe. I like living with my stuff. And living in Tokyo with my things – gathered slowly and carefully over time – makes me feel connected to the very fabric of my life when I am so far from home.

Fabric, it seems, is something I cannot resist. Once again, at the shrine sale this weekend, I bought another vintage kimono. I tell myself I don’t need another but their colors, their patterns and the feel of the fabric call out to me. It’s easy to give in as they are relatively inexpensive, costing all of 500-1000 yen ($5-$10). I imagine the projects, the throw pillows, and the dress-up possibilities, both for the imaginary play of my children and for myself. This weekend my friend C actually found a fabulous black lace happi coat (short kimono) at the market and she plans to wear it over a camisole and skinny jeans for a night out.

I really believe there is such a thing as a “magpie gene” and that the desire to collect is inborn in some of us. My younger daughter, who is all of 6 years old, has it for sure. She has dug up a collection of porcelain and pottery fragments from the dirt of all the parks around us in Tokyo and keeps boxes and boxes of them for some future use (Why the fragments are there is another question entirely). Her eye is good enough that when she finds a piece of the Seto region porcelain I collect, she can pick it out to give to me to add to my collection. This giant fragment took her a number of tries over a few days to dig up and we are thinking of using it as a doorstop.

Collecting, assembling and re-purposing are inherent to the magpie mentality. Reading Dominique Browning‘s blog Slow Love Life last night I stumbled across scarves made of vintage kimono by artist Judyth van Amringe. Van Amringe seems to be the master magpie – an artist working in many different mediums, switching gears throughout her life. And Dominique Browning herself (formerly editor-in-chief of the now defunct House & Garden) is re-purposing as she explores life in the slow lane. I am looking forward to reading her book Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put On My Pajamas & Found Happiness. The title alone is irresistible.

In making the scarves, Judyth combines different fabrics and colors and they are reversible. Sometimes she adds details like beads or embroidery. They sound as interesting as they look in the photos, but I do wish I could see the combination of fabrics more clearly. This silk ikat positively glows – I’d love to know what she adds to it.

This one has embellishments, with a narrow obi jime (silk cord overbelt) and beads. It may even be a purse as she makes them too.

To my thinking, Judyth van Amringe’s apartment may very well be her “master work”, an accumulated montage of a life’s belongings distilled into a small space. The expression used to describe her place by The New York Times is “artfully crammed” and it is a good one. Van Amringe brings nothing new in without knowing where it is going and how it will relate to everything already there. Her space feels serene, even though it is jam-packed with objects, most of which she has changed or improved in some way.

To compensate for a standard boring bathroom in her rental, she layered a huge bookshelf, a hand carved coat stand, an upholstered slipper chair and real rugs. Oh, how I love real rugs in a bathroom, but that will have to wait for a future post.

It looks like a perfect spot for a little birdie to rest…

Photo credits: 1 & 2. me, 3 & 4. from Slow Love Life, 5 & 6. The New York Times, Photo: David Allee

Oct 26, 2010 By tokyojinja in Artist Spotlight, Expat Life, Porcelain and Pottery, Textiles Tags: expat life, flea market, Judyth van Amringe, kimono, obi, porcelain, textiles, vintage

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