Ancient Japanese furniture is crammed into the antique Yamamoto Shoten in Tokyo’s Setagaya district on August 6.
14:28 JST, October 1, 2024
Under the eaves of a shop in a quiet residential area in the Kitazawa Ward of Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, lies an assortment of old, tasteful red chairs, shelves and other pieces of furniture.
The store, which can be accessed from Higashi-Kitazawa Station on the Odakyu Line, is called Antique Yamamoto Shoten. Founded in 1945, it mainly sells Japanese-style furniture pieces made from the Meiji era to the early years of the Showa era. The store is especially popular with young people.
A stair chest made in Kyoto in the early years of the Meiji era, which owner Akihiro Yamamoto describes as a great find
Akihiro Yamamoto, 55, the store’s third-generation owner, said: “About 60%-70% of our customers are young and, very often, women. They feel something new from old Japanese furniture.”
Chabudai low dining tables, which are used on tatami mats, are especially popular. Customers prefer tables that match the low perspective you get from sitting on the floor. Yamamoto said chabudai tables sell out as soon as they go on sale.
Items from regions with cold climates, such as Tohoku, have huge clasps and sophisticated designs, and the chests made for merchant families are full of drawers where notebooks were kept.
What is special about old Japanese furniture is that it has unique properties, depending on the region and setting in which it was originally used.
That said, people today have unique uses for them: bookcases end up as kitchen cabinets and low fumizukue writing desks are turned into TV tables.
The store also sells antique furniture from abroad that goes well with Japanese furniture.
A craftsman repairs Japanese furniture purchased by the store.
All furniture is repaired by the store’s craftsmen, who pay special attention to the moving parts such as doors and drawers, restoring them so that they can be opened and closed with one finger.
To bring out the color tones of the original material used in each item, the craftsmen use a brush to apply a finishing coat to the surface.
Furniture is displayed under the eaves of the store after it has just been repaired.
When the repairs are completed, the items are set up under the eaves of the store. A little later they are brought inside.
For that reason, repeat customers pay attention first to the items on display under the eaves, Yamamoto said.
When the store was renovated in 2001, Yamamoto insisted on adding a spiral staircase to connect the second floor to the basement.
From the spiral staircase, customers can look out over the approximately 2,500 items crammed into the roughly 2,300-square-foot space. There are chests, cabinets, clocks, lighting devices and many other items.
Because the items on display have all been touched by the store’s artisans, they are all unique.
That’s why the landscape in the store changes drastically every two to three weeks. “I want customers to search and find their favorite Japanese furniture pieces, as if they were looking for treasures,” Yamamoto said.
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Antique Yamamoto Shoten
Address: 5-6-3 Kitazawa, Setagaya Ward, Tokyo
Access: A 6-minute walk from Higashi-Kitazawa Station on the Odakyu Line or a 9-minute walk from Sasazuka Station on the Keio Line
Opening hours: 11am to 7pm Closed on Mondays. If Monday is a national holiday, the store will open that day and close the following Tuesday.
