Guide to Collecting Antiques from Japan

Video Transcript

"You know when you're out bargain hunting, antique stores, garage sales, thrift stores, flea markets, there's something out there that you could buy now, that's fairly reasonable and it's also very collectible and there's still a lot left, at affordable prices. So, what we want to look at today is stuff that says "made in Japan." Which goes back a long way. The first part that was made in Japan, what's called Nippon, when they called Japan, Nippon, and that was like the late eighteen hundreds, early twenties. Then we started to look later, into the twenties and the forties and it was called "made in Japan," but Nippon led to "made in Japan." The interesting thing, to hear, is that in the forties, when the war was going on, we actually occupied Japan. So a lot of them, and we stopped the imports from coming in, so we put a halt on that and then when we allowed them, we occupied Japan and the bottom says "made and occupied Japan," which really helps you date those because those are probably going to be about the forties. Then the US started allowing, after the war, things to be imported, so then it said "Japan" again or "made in Japan." And there was a difference too, into how the things were labeled, like they were either labeled with paper, they were stamped in or they were written onto the mold. So, we're going to be covering all the different types of imports, from Japan. The Japan wannabe, aging them, deciding what's important and taking a look at the types of articles that were made from Japan because that is the most fascinating part of all. When they were made, some were decorative, some were for utility purposes, some were just plain fun, a lot of souvenirs and a lot of drinking cups. So, we'll go into that next and we're going to be talking about "made in Japan.""