flea markets

Today was a glorious day in Kyoto. One of those gorgeous days when you feel spring turning into summer. We’ve had lots of rain this spring, which has turned everything lush and vibrant green, but today was warm and the sky was blue, making you feel summer on its way. And on a beautiful day like today, I had the chance to visit the warehouse of a vingage kimono dealer. I confess I didn’t know quite what to expect, but I did feel it would be a privileged peek into an inner sanctum of fabulous fabrics.

So it was kind of surprising to find the barren walls, metal rung shelving brimming with vintage obi and burgeoning plastic bags, sometimes spilling their colorful contents across the floor. And just stacks and stacks of fabrics everywhere.

Unlike the flea markets, where vendors try to catch the eye of passing shoppers, this was purely warehousing with only narrow passages between the piles and bundles. If there was an order to this chaos, it was known only to the owner, as he confidently moved through his storehouse, pulling out a variety of items for me to swoon over. He seemed so amused as I oo-oohed and awed with each new offering. Although the years I have spent in Kyoto has allowed me to become a somewhat jaded veteran flea-market shopper, the sheer quantity of beauty packed into such a small space overwhelmed even me.

Pictured below is an embroidered wedding kimono.

Click on the image for a closer look at the embroidered details.

I confess that within 30 or 40 minutes, I had spent every last dime in my pocket and on the ride home, my poor bike wobbled under the heavy load of my purchases. It was a glorious day.

With more than 1600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines in Kyoto, it’s no surprise that Kitano is not the only shrine to host a monthly flea market in its garden. Each of the markets has its own character. While Kitanois known as a treasure-hunter’s paradise, Chion-ji is known for contemporary crafts. All of the vendors must have made their wares.

Woodwork, pottery, and cultured pearls comprise just a part of the range of visual treats available to Chion-ji shoppers. There is simply every craft imaginable along with lots of garden vegetables and homemade food, even homemade Japanese bagels.

And of course, there are fiber artists of every persuasion: dyers, weavers, quilters and patch workers. Lots and lots of patchworkers. With so many kimono being turned into doll clothes, western clothes, cell phone cases and mobile fantasies, it’s no wonder that kimono prices are becoming so dear!

…because the 25th of each month is the flea market at Kitano Tenmangu.
True, you need to travel a little further than the Christmas tree in the down stairs living room to find those wondrous surprise that await you. But the trip to Kitano shrine is just a 10-minute bicycle ride from my house, and that’s where the fun begins.

In the gardens and streets surrounding the shrine, vendors of every exotic treasure imaginable display their wares in a myriad of little stalls packed one right after the other.

So, stroll past the porcelain, stop to swoon over the Imari, sneak past the sweet shops with their elaborate little treats (you can click on the picture, if you want a bigger peek), spend a few moments browsing the antiques. Then keep going till you come to kimono. Kimono on racks, kimono in stacks and kimono in piles on the floor.

oo-oo-oh! it’s just like Christmas morning!