Sunday, December 2, 2012

Interesting things on YJA.

Hello everyone :)

I've been a little busy trying to learn how to sew, I'm working on a 1950's inspired dress for a good friends wedding and I'm nearly done!

I haven't been doing any odori programs and my Etsy shop is a bit slow so I thought I'd share some interesting YJA auctions I've found.

In no particular order:

Junior set of Maiko kanzashi featuring sakura and butterflies.
A bit expensive though... And I don't have any spring hikizuri so I hope someone else gets this.
Auction link.

These Katsuno magazine clippings, although I already have them many people seemed to have enjoyed them on my Flickr and I'm sure someone would like to own them.
Auction link.


Next is 8 uchiwa with maiko/geiko names.
Only my Internet is really slow/annoying right now and I can't seem to link the photo.
Auction link.



Hanameishi:

Auction link.

Auction link.

Now I know these have both finished but the seller Yukimi085 has many of them for sale, they also have the miniature tsuamami hana kanzashi that maiko wear with casual kimono and odori programs.

Lastly is this amazing kimono (Sold for 95,000 yen) with palms!
I considered bidding on it for a millisecond before the price sky rocketed!




Auction link. if you wish to check it out.

Thanks for looking, now I'd better get back to my sewing, I only have until Friday to finish it!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Etsy new items.

Hi everyone,

I've added a few new things to my Etsy shop Kofuji Kimono.
A big thankyou to everyone so far who have bought things, its a slow process selling everything.

All these geta are $20 plus postage.  Here.


Obi on the left:
Wheel maru obi: $25
Ro thistle obi: $39
Navy nagoya obi: $15

Obi on Etsy.

Kimono on the left:
Vintage blue irotomesode: $120
Red patchwork juban: $50 

Kimono  on Etsy.

Thanks for looking as always!

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Kamogawa odori uploads and random YJA finds.

I still have that massive pile to odori programs to scan and upload....
I had forgotten about them as I've been trying to sell lots of stuff lately so my craft/kimono room is so un organised as there's stuff everywhere to be photographed/description written etc so I really haven't had a chance to do the odori programs.
But today I uploaded all the Kamogawa odori I had ready:

 1978

 1979


   1979
 1980

 1981

 1982


Here is the Kamogawa folder of my Flickr if you wish to view any of these.

I browse YJA nearly every day. Its a bit sad but its a habit that I haven't shaken from when I was seriously intensely collection odori programs and maiko things.
Although I use it now for finding lolita clothing I still search for maiko and kimono things.
So here's some interesting goodies I found:


These are still pretty cheap at the moment. Given that I think that's Momotaro in there these would date from around the Taisho era, on ebay you would buy each individually for $30 (or more or less depending if the seller who their stuff) 
All really pretty, if I had found these even a few months ago I would buy them.


No idea what this magazine is actually called.... but I do actually own this so you can see the scans on my Flickr if you wanted to know what it contained before buying.


More Taisho postcards. Again, I'm kinda tempted to buy these but I probably won't.
Still very cheap at the moment, with 3 days to go. I've seen auctions like this before where they might end at 8,000 yen or more.

Well that's all for now :)

Friday, November 9, 2012

Etsy listings- Odori programs

So its been about a week since I opened the Etsy shop and its going rather well I think.
I was worried that because it isn't as popular as eBay that it would take a while to sell things but I've already sold a couple of things so I think its all good :)

Today I listed all the pre-1993 odori programs for sale to my Etsy Shop, that just leaves the 2008 and 1994 Miyako odori not on Etsy but is still available through my Flickr.


Miyako Odori:

Left coloumn:
Miyako 1986 $16.50 Good condition, cover has some general wear and creases but still very good.
Miyako 1971 $42.50 Fragile conditon, spine is coming apart, cover has some marks.
Miyako 1992 $16.50 Small marks on covers, spine in good condition.
Miyako 1931 $47.50 Fragile condition, spine coming apart, inside pages have age spots and colour.
Right hand coloumn:
Miyako 1983 $16.50 Good condition, cover has creases and general wear.
Miyako 2008 $16.50 Good condition, cover does and some creases and general wear.
Miyako 1994 $16.50 Small scuffs on covers, otherwise good.
Miyako 1933 $47.50 Fragile condition, spine coming apart, inside pages have age spots and coloured.




Kyo 1951 $37.50 fragile condition. Spine is fraying, small marks and age spots on covers.
Kitano 1992 $16.50 Small marks on covers but otherwise good condition.



Top row:
Kamogawa 1966
Kamogawa 1987
Kamogawa 1986
Second row:
Kamogawa 1988
Kamogawa 1986
Kamogawa 1958
All Kamogawa odori are $16.50 in good condition, cover has general wear and creases.

I will be adding more kimono and obi soon, as well as more maiko/geiko photo books :)



Sunday, November 4, 2012

Kofuji Kimono on Etsy!

Today I opened an Etsy shop to help sell my kimono and other things.

Kofuji Kimono will have lots of kimono, obi, geta, kanzashi, books and many other little surprises.
Here is what I have for sale at the moment:





I will be adding more things later, thanks for looking :)


Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Books for sale!

I have sooooooo many books.
I love books, so its not a surprise.
I've gone through my box of books and came out the other side with this massive pile.
Most are Maiko photos books, some are kimono, nihongami and kabuki booklets.

First up, Nihongami Books:


Top Left: Tayu/Oiran hairstyles-$ 100 OBO
Very nice photo book. Is an ex-library book I think? The cover is a bit scuffed but still good condition. I haven't seen this book for sale very often.
Right: Nihongami modern hairstyles mook-$40 OBO
Really nice photos and step-by-step explanation of how to make the hairstyles.
Has many different hairstyles shown, I only photographed a few.
Cover is a bit scuffed but still very good condition.
Bottom left: Maiko hairstyles,dressing and makeup. $80 OBO.
Really good instructional book.

KIE Magazines:


Kateigaho International Edition X4:
$15 each or $45 for all four.
All in good condition, covers might have some general wear but good condition otherwise.

All text is in Japanese books:



 $15 for all of them
All of these books are all Japanese with some photos but its mainly text.

Maiko photobooks:

Top row:
*Kimika and Kimiharu "won't you become a maiko" book-$15.
* Nihongami reference book-$15.
All in Japanese but has many of the popual hairstyles of the past.
*Kyoto Gion photobook-$20, lots of nice photos.
Bottom row:
*Kyoto maiko book-$15, pretty photos.
*Katsuno's guide to Kyoto? -$35 lots of nice pictures of Katsuno in beautiful kimono in different resturants and shops around Kyoto. Cover is a bit damaged and loose.
*Another maiko photobook-$15
*yet another maiko photobook-$15.
Sorry I don't actually know the names of some of the books but basically they just have pretty pictures in them.
Will do discounts for mulitple buys.


Top row:
* Kyoto Hanamachi books, both 2002 and 2005. $30 for the pair.
Bottom row:
*Gion Ichisuzu-$40.
Very nice photos.
*Dancers of Gion-Kobu-$40
Again a nice photobook.

Geisha books:


*Liza Dalby " The Tale of Murasaki" -$10.
In used condition.
* Sato Masuda "Autobiography of a geisha" -$10.
In used condition.
* Liza Crihfield "Ko-uta, little songs of the Geisha world"
Hard cover with dust jacket. $30.


Kimono books:

Clockwise:
* Japanese kimono designs-$5
*Furisode catalouge-$5
*Kimono by Sophie Milenovich-$20

Kabuki booklets:

$5 each for the Kabuki booklets.
$30 for the 1950's maiko magazine.
All are quite old so there will be some stains, rips and general wear.





$5 each.
All are quite old so there will be some stains, rips and general wear.


There was a lot more than I thought! Hopefully something here interests you, pop over and have a look at the detail photos in my For Sale folder and contact me if you would like something :)

Monday, October 29, 2012

Kimono, Haori and some Maiko Stuff For Sale.

Hi everyone :)

I'm selling some more pretties on my Flickr:


Top row:
*Bamboo haori-$30
*girls haori-Sold.
*Stripe haori-$1
Middle Row:
*Kofurisode and hakama set-$120
*Purple komon-$10
Bottom row:
*Ro komon-$50
*All shibori houmongi-$50
*Vintage juban-$50
All are open to offers, I just want to get rid of these.


Maiko Postcards: $15.
Maiko half Han'eri: $40.
Kyo Odori Plate: $15.
Kinchaku: $50.

Please have a look at all the detailed photos of the items as well, in my
 Flickr folder and contact me on Flickr or here if you are interested in anything.
Next I'm going to be listing some books. I've collected many over the years.
 Most will be in Japanese but will have photos (my original reason for buying
 them as I don't speak/read Japanese apart from the odd phrase/word) so
 hopefully that will interest some of you.
Then I think I'll list some obi and obijime/obiage and some general kitsuke items.
Basically I'm selling most of my collection as I don't really wear any of them
 and may as well put the money towards clothes I will wear. Sad truth.
 I've been thinking this way for a while now. I'm sure some of you also go
 through phases where you wonder why you collect kimono but this has
 been hanging around in my thoughts for a while now.

So feel free to make an offer on any of my items. If it took me 5 years to collect
 all that I have, it might take another 5 years to sell it all...

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Kanzashi and Odori programmes for sale.

I'm in the process of having a very hard look at my entire kimono collection and selling the majority of them...
And all the other bits and pieces I've collected over the years, I've been a bit slack and haven't uploaded photos of everything to Flickr but I am now...

Today I've got odori programmes and kanzashi for sale on my Flickr, if they don't sell in a few months I'll list them on eBay



Wedding kanzashi I think $8


Pair of plastic kanzashi with flowers.
Has some slight scratches, please see photos.
Good condition otherwise.
$15 for the pair.



Pair of kanzashi with diamonties.
Made of fabric coated in plastic.
$10


Pair of red and black kanzashi.
Good condition, plastic.
$10.


Pair of kanzashi.
Good condition, plastic.
One is tortoise shell like with painted flowers, other is glittery.
$15.


Pair of kanzashi made of plastic.
Good condition, $15.


Pair of kanzashi made of plastic.
Good condition, $15.

Miyako Odori:
Left coloumn:
Miyako 1986 $15 Good condition, cover has some general wear and creases but still very good.
Miyako 1971 $40 Fragile conditon, spine is coming apart, cover has some marks.
Miyako 1992 $15 Small marks on covers, spine in good condition.
Miyako 1931 $45 Fragile condition, spine coming apart, inside pages have age spots and colour.
Right hand coloumn:
Miyako 1983 $15 Good condition, cover has creases and general wear.
Miyako 2008 $15 Good condition, cover does and some creases and general wear.
Miyako 1994 $15 Small scuffs on covers, otherwise good.
Miyako 1933 $45 Fragile condition, spine coming apart, inside pages have age spots and coloured.


Kyo, Kitano odori and Kabuki:
Clockwise:
Kyo 1951 $35 fragile condition. Spine is fraying, small marks and age spots on covers.
Kaomise Kabuki 1961 $5 good condition, cover has general wear and creases.
Kitano 1992 $15 Small marks on covers but otherwise good condition.


Kamogawa odori:
Top row:
Kamogawa 1966
Kamogawa 1987
Kamogawa 1986
Second row:
Kamogawa 1988
Kamogawa 1986
Kamogawa 1958
All Kamogawa odori are $15 in good condition, cover has general wear and creases.

Please contact me via this blog, on my Flickr page, on the Immortal Geisha or Tsuruko Maiko forums if you are interested in anything, thankyou!

Friday, October 12, 2012

Book sale!

I've mainly got books up for sale this week, most of them aren't kimono related but just fiction books, but I'll post what I think might be of interest to you:



*Blue iro-tomesode with wisteria.
*Meiji era girls furisode.


*2X Daruma magazines. One has an article on kanzashi and the other has an article on obi ( why I originally bought them, pretty pictures!)
*The Gion quarter book. Fantastic black and white photo book of Gion Kobu between the 1930's and 1960's I think. Cover has had something spilt on it but otherwise good condition.

Other books I have for sale are some bonsai/ikebana/how to draw manga....

Please have a look at my eBay here. Thankyou :)

Saturday, September 29, 2012

How to: Use Noppin

While I'm being productive....
About a month ago I said I'd try to write up a tutorial on how to use Noppin for the auction service on the TM forums, well I started straight away and then forgot about it...
Well this is my (probably patchy) instructions.
Noppin use to have a good page on their site of how to use their website and how the flow of service works but it seems to page is broken now, or I just couldn't find it.
Please forgive me if I 've missed things, although I've been using Noppin for a few years I may overlook something that I find obvious because I use it so much but a new person using it will need explaining...

Ok!

*First of all you will have to sign up:
*Read all the important info, and apprently you have to be 18+ to use Noppin.
*Then you will create your profile.



And then I'm a bit fuzzy on what happens next!

I can't remember if your registration begins right away or if they need to verify stuff...

When you're all good and signed up you'll need to deposit some money to Noppin so you can bid on items.
You deposit in 2000yen amounts with a multiplier of 3.
So: 2000yen of your deposited money will allow you to bid up to 6000yen on auctions. 
Make sense?
You can deposit money using Paypal or a credit card:
Sorry about the black lines, they appeared on some of the screen shots...
I personally have only used Paypal with Noppin so I don't know about using a credit card...

So deposit what you think you will use.
You can have your deposit refunded as long as you aren't bidding on any items or don't have any items that you've won but not paid for.
Don't quote me on it but I think you will get back most of your deposit if you refund it within 60 days.
If its more than 60 days you will still get back a refund but it won't be the full amount.

Ok, deposited the money? Great. Let's go shopping!!!


When searching for things on Noppin the best results will show up if you search in hiragana/katakana/kanji rather than English. Searching in English will turn up results but its more likely to be touristy junk.
As I'm writing this for TM I'll use their Hanamachi Dictionary as a reference for search terms.
This Dictionary is great! I use it all the time for searching/labelling posts, so a big thanks to all the members who contributed to making the dictionary.

So I'm going to search "maiko/舞妓"


So I've clicked on the second item, a maiko painting.





You can translate the page if you want to read the description, some Internet browsers will do it for you but otherwise there are orange tabs half way down the page that you can click for English, French, Spanish and Chinese I think.
Say I want to bid on this.
What I have to do is click on the "Bid on this Item" orange button at the top of the page.
It will take you to another page. If you have enough money deposited you can add how much to want to bid to. You will also have to name the item so you can find it in your watchlist later.
I name it but also put the ending date and time in the name so I don't forget.
If you don't have enough money deposited you will have the chance to deposit more money and then be able to place the bid.


Once you have placed your bid it will take you back to the auction page and you can see if you are winning or not.
Noppin's user ID will be "cre*****".
Just to be sure that you are in the lead you should go to the "My Noppin"  white tab at the top of the page, click into your watchlist and look at the status there, as another Noppin member may have outbid you.



This is what is in my watchlist right now.
You can see what the symbols mean at the bottom of the page.
If you win an auction a little box will appear in the "Pay" column on the left hand side of the item name. 
It will show you what you will need to pay for the item. It breaks it down so you know how much the domestic postage and fees are.
I don't have a screen shot of this but I write all of this down for every auction I win
EG: 1970's Miyako ( I didn't know the exact date lol) 
I won the item for 1000 yen, Plus 340yen for domestic shipping, 250yen for a bank wire, 500yen for Noppin service fee. Total 2090yen
Plus international postage on top of that whenever you decide to get it sent to you. You have 60 days from the time your first item arrives at Noppin before you must ship them to yourself.

I will get to the fees later.

So in my watchlist below you can see that I am watching items and some items I have bid on and lost.
be sure to check the status on the items you are bidding on in case another Noppin member outbids you. 
When Noppin was Crescent Shop only one member could bid on an auction but that's changed now!


So you have won and paid for your item!
The item then gets moved to the "Storage space" where it can wait until you have more things to post off.


When you are ready to ship your items check the little box next to the item name and click the blue "continue" button.
As I've written on the image there is a box for "special shipping instructions" here is where you put your chosen postage method, whether you want a box or bag or if you have recently moved your new address.
If you don't specify what postage method you want Noppin will send it EMS in a box.

Then your items move to the "Shipping Status" area.
It will take a day or two for Noppin to pack your items and calculate the international postage you have chosen.

Here you can see I have a package that I have just chosen to ship.
Noppin is currently packing my items together and calculating the cost.
They are "Processing" my request right now.
When they are done it will change to "Ready to Ship" ( I think) so then you can pay for the international postage and get it sent to you.

That's basically it.

Fees:
Every auction you bid on Noppin will charge you for using their service.
For auctions up to 5000yen the fee will be 500yen and then it increases depending on how much the item sells for.

If you have any questions about an auction or shipping you can contact Noppin through your contact board in "My Noppin".
Just choose the appropriate "general"/"auction" or "shopping service" message board to contact them through.
I have always found the Noppin workers to be very nice and courteous with my silly questions.
After all you are the customer, if their service isn't good you'll use someone else's. 

I'm sure I've missed something though so please ask any questions you may have and I'll try to answer them as best I can.