Sourcing in Japan Day 3: The hunt for haori & hidden treasures
Behind the scenes of: my latest sourcing trip through Kyoto and Okayama. Come and find treasures with me that others overlook.
Yesterday I met my favorite chawan supplier in Osaka. Today I am going out to hunt again.
The market days have a rhythm of their own. The shop days are different. Quieter, more deliberate, and sometimes the better finds.
👉 This is Day 3 of my Sourcing Week in Japan series. Covered arcades, a kimono specialist, and a folder from an antique bookstore I was not expecting.
New to KAIKO&CO? [Start with Day 1 →] to find out how this trip began.
9:30 AM - Today is for the smaller shops. The shotengai: those nostalgic covered shopping arcades that feel frozen in the 1970s.
I'm looking for two things today: vintage haori (silk kimono jackets) and, if I'm lucky some more rare items.
11:00 AM - I find a kimono specialty shop tucked into a covered arcade in central Kyoto. Everything is curated, displayed with care, treated with respect.
The owner is an elegant older woman who clearly knows textiles inside and out. This is the level of care these pieces deserve. She shows me to the haori section. I go through them methodically. Checking silk quality, looking for any damage, examining the weave and dye work. I find six exceptional pieces.
What makes me smile: two of them still have the white stitches sewn into the collar. In Japan, these temporary stitches are added to brand new kimono and haori to keep the shape during storage and transport. You remove them before wearing. The presence of these stitches means these haori were never worn.
Still new after 40, 50, maybe 60 years.
The owner also shows me several obi - those long decorative belts used to tie kimono. The silk brocade work is stunning.
Many people don't realize what you can do with vintage obi: they can become table runners, wall hangings, upholstery fabric, pillow covers. The fabric is too beautiful to just store away.
Six haori and three obi. Each piece carefully wrapped in tissue paper by the owner, the way they should be treated.
1:00 PM - Lunch and a few shops later, I'm in a small antique book store. He has a collection of ukiyo-e prints in woodblock and lithography stone print. Most are vintage from the Showa period, but he pulls out a folder of older pieces.
There it is. A set of lithography prints, over 100 years old. Deep into the Meiji period: April 18th 1895. to be exact. The colors are still vibrant. The paper shows age in the right way. Soft, slightly yellowed at the edges. It’s a series of 12 and he collected 10 of them.
Higashi Hongan-ji temple in Kyoto
💡 The series is called 京都名所: Kyōto Meisho, Famous Places of Kyoto.
Ten colour lithographs made in April 1895 to celebrate the city's 1,100th anniversary of Kyoto and the opening of the brand-new Heian Jingu shrine. How special. Some finds you can't walk away from.
Plus the technique tells its own story too: woodblock was the tradition, but lithography was the modern choice. In 1895, Kyoto wanted to feel modern.
2:30 PM - Back outside. The kind of afternoon where you walk slower than usual because you're carrying something you don't want to bump into anything.
While walking I think back about an afternoon I spent at the Japan Ukiyo-e Museum in Matsumoto. Standing in front of the actual tools: the carving chisels, the baren rubbing pad, the wide hake brushes. It makes you understand the craft differently. And then walking into a room with a Hokusai on the wall, knowing exactly what went into making it.
A cherry wood printing block (版木) next to the Hiroshige print it produced. Every line you see in the finished image was carved by hand into this wood.
The small print displayed above the block is a Hiroshige, from the series 東都月の三景 (Tōto Tsuki no Sankei: Three Moon Views of the Eastern Capital). The label identifies it as 中洲夏の月 (Nakasu Natsu no Tsuki: Summer Moon at Nakasu).
Nakasu was a famous little island in the Sumida River in Edo, known as a place to eat, drink, and enjoy the evening. A woman in a boat, a full moon, still water. Typical Hiroshige.
4:00 PM - I'm done for the day. Eight haori, a set of two glazed ceramic foo dogs, those prints, and a few vintage obi belts.
My bag is considerably heavier than this morning.
Next up in progress: [Day 4 →] nobody talks about this part. The hotel room floor covered in objects, the customs paperwork, and a very good matcha at the end of it.
If you want to follow along as new pieces arrive in the shop, join the list. Once a month: new listings, a bit of background on where each piece came from, the occasional sourcing journal page, and sometimes something that never makes it to the shop at all.