One of each, and no more
Vintage and handmade Japanese homeware — urushi lacquerware, ceramics and tableware, most of it never sold in the States.
Shop everythingWhere to start
The shelves
- LacquerwareUrushi and lacquered wood — trays, boxes and jūbako, some still in their original paulownia boxes.
- CeramicsPorcelain, stoneware and raku, from everyday rice bowls to pieces signed on the foot.
- TablewarePlates, bowls and serving pieces meant to be used, not shelved.
- ServewareWhat food arrives on when the meal is worth the trouble.
- TextilesSilk, indigo and the cloth that wrapped everything else.
- DecorPieces bought for the look of them, and honest about it.
The name
稲穂
実るほど頭を垂れる稲穂かな
The riper the ear of rice, the lower it bows its head.
稲穂 — inaho — is the ear of the rice plant, heavy with grain at harvest. The proverb means that the more someone has, the more quietly they carry it, and it is the tone we would like the whole shop to have: objects with real age and real craft, presented without shouting about it.
It happens to describe good photography of old things, too. Let the piece bow, and get out of its way.
Before you buy from a stranger
How this works
One of one
Every piece here is a single physical object with a history, not a line in a warehouse. There is one, and when it sells it is gone — no restock, no second one behind it, and no waiting list we could honestly offer you.
The flaws are photographed
Every piece carries a condition grade, written notes naming each chip, scuff and box tear, and close photographs of all of them. Where a mark is original to the technique rather than damage, that is said too.
Packed by hand
Wrapped and double-boxed by hand; where a piece has its original box, that box travels inside a second one rather than doing the protecting. Thirty days to send it back for a full refund, for any reason.