Toji Market

Heading to my destination, I passed something interesting. A busy road with shops all around, under a store awning, was a birds nest. With the baby chicks heads popping right out and the mother flying around. It was somewhat odd to see in the middle of a city, not in a park or anything, but just on the street like that.

Also on my way I stopped at a public bath located under Kyoto Tower, not the best I've been to, but a nice refresher, woke me right up, then I continued south via subway. My destination was Toji Shrine, one of the world cultural heritage sites in Kyoto. But I wasn't headed there for the shrine today, but the market held there on the first sunday of every month. There are many markets in Kyoto, including a few bigger ones late in the month, so I wasn't really planning to purchase anything today, just see what was there. And what I saw, was everything. The biggest yard sale/flea market ever, with booths and canopies, mostly old goods, antiques and tidbits, rows and rows of merchants selling whatever they had. Most things were laid out neatly on blankets or tables, so it was easy to just wander around and look.

Old cameras, pottery, dishes, stone carvings, glass carvings, wood carvings, new and old kimonos, textiles, fabrics, brushes, old axes, boxes, keys, old coins and money, old photographs, lamps, knives, jewelry, pocket watches, masks, toys, teapots, swords, guns, books, pages, videos, dvds, weavings, sake sets, abacus, hilts, leather goods, weavings, rope, figurines, ceramics, zippo lighters, matches, suzuri, old wooden locks, the list goes on and on, simply the biggest yard sale of the most varied junk imaginable that I had ever seen.
The item that had me most excited though were the old scroll paintings. Any merchant having these kept them rolled up safely, with a book of photographs for browsing. If you saw one you liked, they would open it up for closer inspection. Some of these looked maybe not genuine, or of lower quality, but others were dated all the way back to the Edo period. The prices looked very reasonable for what you were purchasing, upwards of a couple hundred US$ depending, and I'm sure that could be bargained down. It's been on my mind from the start, that if I could find it, a genuine Japanese painted scroll would be my 'big' souvenir from Japan, so it's good to know it's possible. I've also heard of a similar market of books and old wood-block prints sometime in the summer, so I will be looking out for that.

Alex Kerr, who has written a number of books about Japan, once talked about antiques in Japan. He said that in their rush to modernize, much of Japanese culture was devalued, specifically artistic relics like scroll paintings, calligraphy and wood-block prints. I don't think it's as bad as it once was before Japan's economic bubble burst in the 90s, but I see what he means.

Being at one of Kyotos most famous temple, I obviously looked around a bit. I didn't pay to go into the main temple area, but there was a little sub temple one could go into. There were some paintings on the wall and a few large wooden sculptures. Photography was not allowed (as would be expected), but the 'No Sketching' sign almost made me laugh out loud.