I Went Antiquing with My Friend in Kyoto

Hello there! How have you been so far?

I am excited that I finally can update my blog again, lol. Today I want to show some photos of Japanese porcelain shops. A friend of mine and I went antiquing in Kyoto and I took some photos there.

First, we stopped by an antique shop. Here you can see a bunch of Antique porcelain.

 

The shop owner was very nice and when I asked her to take some photos of the inside, she let me take some photos. So, I can show you them.

 

 

The shop owner explained to us that she has owned this shop for over thirty years. Most of the china here were made in the Edo period. It means they are 500 to 600 years old! Wow!!!

 

 

 

 

I bought some antique porcelain to practice Kintsugi techniques. Kintsugi is a part of our traditional techniques to fix broken porcelain. I started learning how to fix porcelain after the earthquake in Osaka.

Here you can learn about Kintsugi more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi

After looking around the shop, we walked and found another nice shop.

This shop is not an antique shop.  I explained to a worker at the shop  that I was looking for some practice pieces for my Kintsugi techniques, and she told me that when I come back to the shop at the porcelain festival in summer, she can sell broken pieces for very cheap. Then, to contact me she wrote down my address and phone number on a piece of paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This corner is Kintsugi. I didn’t know that we can sell fixed pieces with the Kintsugi techniques. They were broken once and fixed with the Kintsugi techniques. So, we can use them again.

We ate Japanese noodle called Udon with some chicken tempura.

Since we were very close to Yasaka temple, I asked my friend to go there. That’s because I wanted to see and take some photos of cherry blossoms there.

 

 

Although the weather in Kyoto on the day was still cold, luckily we could see some cherry blossoms blooming.

 

We walked to the Teramachi street to see another antique shop. I didn’t take the shop photos, but I found beautiful cherry blossoms there and saw a maiko.

This shop is so-called Ochaya where Maiko and Geiko ( also called Geisya) are working. So, if we are lucky, we sometimes can see Maiko or Geiko.

 

 

Aren’t they pretty? I really love cherry blossoms with a river. The scene is the best!!

All the sudden, my friend and I saw a maiko. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maiko

Nowadays, when you walk around in Kyoto, you can see fake Maiko or Geiko everywhere. They are tourists who are wearing a maiko costume or geiko costume. When you want to see a real one, you should come to the streets which have Ocyayas where they work for.　https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochaya

The Maiko was a real one because she was walking alone with a plastic bag. We thought she had some errand to buy something. We chased her, lol to take some photos.

 

 

She was too fast for us to follow even though she was wearing a kimono and we couldn’t see her face. This also made us think she was a professional one.  Usually people can’t walk fast when they wear a kimono.

I had a great time with my friend in Kyoto. She and I will go some antique shows and I will introduce them on my blog soon.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog!

This year I want to focus on creating my own style of art and probably it’s hard for me to show my pieces. Even so, I will try to show my practice pieces on my blog!

-Yumi