About us

The objects offered on this website have been carefully sourced and vetted, with over twenty five years of experience supporting their authenticity. Building this experience has been overwhelmingly rewarding, though, quite naturally in this time a sense of personal taste has been developed. In the past much of the focus has been on Netsuke and related objects and that focus will continue. However, taking into account the name on this site, one can come to expect that much of what you will see contained within will be of a devotional nature, with emphasis on Buddhist, Shinto or cultural themes of Japan. This reflects the taste mentioned above. It does not marginalise objects by period, or even disqualify objects unrelated to the above mentioned belief systems. The objects we find, and subsequently offer, it is imperative to us that they communicate a message. A communique imbedded with the 'spirit' of Japan. Some may echo with a culture long since past. Others may have historical significance. Some may have the 'look' that speaks to a worldwide audience as the Japanese aesthetic.

To understand our ethos, it might be of assistance to question what is Japanese art, and perhaps where did it come from? The latter part of this question is, one may think, easy to answer. Japan right? However, I would question Japanese art made in Japan, even a century ago, is not necessarily Japanese art if it was made distinctly for western taste. Art that was made for western taste, does not sing nor echo the sound of old Japan. Japanese Art, for us, must be intrinsically Japanese in production and indeed in consumption. This mantra, "made by the Japanese, for the Japanese" keeps a purity to the very essence of Japan's arts, irrelevant of the form. After All, Japan's populace existed within a framework of religious pluralism, was born into a rigid system of class, was controlled by an authoritarian military ruler whose systematic command must be obeyed or at least be seen to be obeyed, or else. Confucian ideals, contrived by the ruling class were dictated. Individualism suppressed. However, within these Islands that made up Japan, Islands during the Edo period virtually closed to western intercourse and influence, a society bubbled like a cauldron, from which spilled an aesthetic, fascinating in conception, handmade objects, unparalleled in skill anywhere else on earth, before, arguably since. Objects made within this society, for this society are what we endeavour to offer.