Takashimaya's Kashiwa store marks 30 years of its craft-vendor exhibition
Takashimaya's Kashiwa branch runs its Japan traditional-crafts fair for a 30th year, a Chiba department store's bet that curated culture, not price, is what keeps a regional customer coming back.
Takashimaya's Kashiwa store, northeast of Tokyo in Chiba, is running the 30th edition of its Japan traditional-crafts exhibition from September 2 to 7, according to the company's press release, a fixture the department store has kept on its calendar for three decades.
"Devoted to Our Craft" -- Takashimaya's own English rendering of "Kono michi hitosuji: Nihon no dento-ten" -- brings 31 craft vendors to the main building's B2F exhibition space, the company said, drawn from across the country: among them Iwate lacquerware and amber work, Edo kiriko cut glass, handmade brushes and silverware from Tokyo, and pieces from producers in Kyoto, Ishikawa, Kagawa and Kyushu. The fair runs 10:30am to 7pm daily, closing at 5pm on its final day.
Takashimaya said the run includes two hands-on sessions: an Edo kiriko cut-glass carving workshop on September 5, and a Kishu-zumi ink-painting session open September 2 through 6.
A department store's own crafts fair earns comparatively little against the floor space it occupies, but it is a Presentation and Promotion tool rather than a Product one: three decades of the same fixture gives a Chiba commuter-belt branch a reason to draw shoppers in that a rotating cast of pop-ups cannot, competing less on price than on being the place a regional customer still goes to watch a maker work.