Back in July of this year I received an email from a movie and TV show set design company about supplying Japanese antiques for a TV mini series for the new Apple streaming service. After a Zoom meeting we decided to move ahead on the project. Because it is still in production I will save the name of the series until after it is released.
This was a very imposing project and I knew that I could not complete it by myself and still run Chidori Vintage day to day. So I brought in a good friend of mine Simone who runs a website called Japanese Vintage. This ended up being a very good decision because together we were able to find everything they were looking for.
The movie is based on a novel about Korean immigrants who came to Japan during the 1930's and follows them through the late 1980's. So we needed to get items of various time periods.
Our first stop was an antiques auction in Tajimi which is in Gifu Prefecture. We got a massive haul on this occasion. Here is some of the items we bought.
Japanese Rice Bucket Japanese Radio C1930. Japanese Sake Barrel
At this one auction we filled a 40 foot container. We bought all kinds of items. We had many scenes to fill for this movie. There were street scenes where we had to buy lots things that would be seen in the 1930's and 1980's. Here are some examples.
Japanese Post Box Paper Lantern. Japanese Kanban Sign
I also spent quite a bit of time at my favorite antiques market, the Osu Antiques Market. This is the oldest market in Japan and runs on the 18th and 28th of each month in Nagoya. Here are some photos of the tables at the market.
Through our connections with different auctions, dealers, and shops all around Japan we were able to find everything that the movie company needed. We ended up working for about 3 months and sent 5 shipments. We have made some great connections in the industry and look forward to working on more projects for movies about Japan in the future. If you have a big project where you need lots of cool Japanese antiques, feel free to contact us.