On a Quest

A Return to Retail Therapy

Purpose.

Finding or having purpose in or for one’s life is essential to all but perhaps more so for those who have lost their families. Me, I need a purpose that gets me out of bed, out of the apartment and much needed exercise. I have added so much to my girth in such a short time that pants that fit at the beginning of the summer no longer do! So I revived long time interests, rebuilt my ukiyoe collection and started tracking down the locations of places featured in them, those that feature specific spots, anyway.

There are several specific ukiyoe prints that I am looking for. Some are companion pieces to ones I have that are part of diptych or triptych works. Others are of locations I know or nearby. Others are of people, usually women, who are either engaged in daily activities or are using certain items. Today, several of these arrived. The first just as my weekly zoom meeting with my mom and niece started. It is a smaller one that artfully depicts a young lady applying white make up to the back of her neck while looking into a hand mirror.

Hard to see here, but there is a hand shaped whiter area just to the right of here hand.

Another package contained 7 large sized ukiyoe. One is the second I now have of a triptych, still looking for the third piece. Two of the remaining and possibly a third are places in or near Tokyo. The third of these is a lovely scene regardless where it is. Of the two I got because I know the location, one I have passed over in the past because I did not yet know where it depicted and the coloring was awful. Awful or not, it is of a place near where I live and I ordered it and was once again pleasantly surprised that it is in fact quite nice. The other one too is far better than it appeared on screen. Each of these seven sold for less than $20 apiece.

The last one above is part of a triptych I have one other piece from, shown below.

This is the one of this set I already had.

Then we have the big delivery. Another tansu! I just couldn’t pass it up. Beautiful lock covers and wood color, with four keys and all locks function for ¥20,000! That’s less than $200! Delivery included. Unlike my other furniture purchases, the delivery company did not contact me before hand to arrange day and time. I just got a call early this morning telling me they would deliver it between 12:30 and 1:30 today. Luckily they arrived right at 12:30 as Honey Badger and I had plans to munch boigas.

This one is quite dirty. Either spent a lot of time in a Kura, Japanese store house, barn or a derelict house. The iron work is quite rusted. Knowing it was coming soon, even before they contacted me, I plugged in my cordless vacuum cleaner late last night and it was finally fully charged when the delivery was made. The battery died just after I finished the inside of the last of the big drawers and when I needed to stop for our late boiga lunch. On my way home now, I hope I can finish vacuuming and wiping it down tonight.

Unlike all other Japanese tansu I have seen, the front piece of each drawer is hardwood and the rest cedar. So it is actually a cedar chest of drawers. I wonder how common or not this is. At present, I have no idea where to put it. Currently, it is very much in the way in my kitchen/dinning room. Hopefully I can replace my old dresser with it. The fact that it is cedar makes me want to put clothing in it rather than paperwork, books, photos and ceramics. Photos later, after it is cleaned.

Back to technological revenge. Who came up with the idea of batteries integral to a device and who signed off on this moronic idea? What good is a vacuum that works for tens of minutes then takes hours to charge? The previous version of this makers cleaner had replaceable, rechargeable batteries. Why the change? “Progress”, I guess.