Temple Shopping

Not only do temples in Japan have spiritual and historical value, but a number open themselves up, once or twice a month to a variety of vendors and more importantly shoppers.

Yes, all sort of vendors gather to flog their wares- it's a veritable mishmash of old and new, nice and tacky. Everything from old furniture to prints to kimonos to pottery to records to action figures to cutlery and more.

I and another teacher were taken by our headteacher, who hoped to initiate us to this shopping phenomenon. In part it was just interesting to wander through the stalls, see what was on offer, see all of the cultural curiosities. The types of things that people might have in their house, in their attic that you would only see if you were in a traditional Japanese home, not to be found in the slick designer kitchen and house ware shops of present Japan. Of course being the shopper I am, I took to the event like a duck to water. The shopper in me took charge and I was in and out of the stalls, looking through all the boxes. It was a good thing my headteacher was there otherwise I might never have made it through the first row.

The part that caught me up was all the kimonos, kimono accessories and fabrics. The patterns, the colours, the types of fabrics. Amazing, hard to describe unless you have some frame of reference. I know have a frame of reference after searching through hundreds of boxes. Of course I didn't leave empty handed- I bought the most gorgeous wedding kimono. No you haven't missed any news, not to worry, it's for me but not for a specific event. It was great, I admired, we walked away. We went back to check and inquired of the price- too much. So we low balled. The seller didn't accept and counter offered, so did I. He lowered his price we started to walk away, I low balled one final time and he came down a bit more. I started to look in my bag for money and 'didn't' have enough so pulled out 'every last coin I had' which he finally accepted. Ah, the thrill of the chase.

What I would like to do is display it, but it's far to heavy to hang on my walls (when rolled it's the size and weight of a quilt), plus I'm still not sure if I can put holes in my walls. There are special stands that can be bought but I haven't come across one yet so at the moment it's not on show. One day though...

The other teacher there took the following pic at the moment the deal was closed.


And pictures of the kimono:






It's so gorgeous, I love it.

You can be sure this will not be the last temple market that I attend. :-)