Hunting for Japanese Craft Stores

I've been to Japan twice. On my last trip, I made it my goal to seek out craft stores.. I had searched everywhere online for the many tiny/adorable supplies that country has to offer, and had the hardest time finding websites that would ship things to the US without insane fees (but that's mostly because of Japan's terrible shipping cost). SO, this time I was determined to find a craft store or two to visit and buy everything.

Specific shops are kind of hard to find in Japan.. Most stores are kind of like variety shops, plus everything is crowded and hidden in tall/narrow buildings, and none of the Japanese people I know could think of a craft-specific store. I did end up finding a couple of craft places on Google maps, but in the end, the two big places I went to were places that I happened upon from pure luck and exploration.

The first place I went to.. Well, the name escapes me.. But it took up a large portion of the basement in the Kyoto Tower. We discovered this by roaming around the shops in the Kyoto station and wandering down a hallway that had a downstairs (because we were starving and a sign said there were restaurants, which we didn't find).. It wasn't until later that we put together the fact that we were a) in the Kyoto tower basement, and b) that it was connected to the station, which was huuuge..

The pink shows the underground parts of Kyoto station.. A/B is the location of the tower.
It's a lie! This station is even bigger!!

The second place I went to was in Nagoya. This one was called Craft Heart Tokai. Also discovered "by accident," in a hallway of girly shops next to Kanayama station. I ended up going here every day while I was in Nagoya, just to marvel over the things and how much I wish I could have bought. It's amazing how fast they change out the products on a day-to-day basis in Japan!

My fave craft store is here. :]

So now that I've overloaded you with text, I'll show you some pictures from inside that second store that I visited four days in a row. Consider these to be reasons why you should go to a Japanese craft store!

One of the decoden aisles.. Tiny fake sweets, gems, moulds, clays, etc.

Sewing notions as far as the eye can seeeee.. Thin sliding layers to get more things in.

So many cute fat quarters.

Tons of pre-packed crafts for nearly everything they had - beading, sewing, crochet, felting, etc.

Purse/wallet handles..

Some cute felt figures to sew onto things.. And every colour of felt in huge bags that are way cheaper than those in US craft stores..

And of course, cute things with unfortunate names! Yay, Engrish!

Hine Mizushima's Felt Creations

Today's artist is Hine [Hee-neh] Mizushima. She was born and raised in Japan, where she later received a degree in traditional Japanese painting, then worked as an illustrator. She primarily creates miniature felt crafts, but also enjoys making stop-motion films, drawing, taking pictures, and surfing the internet. A girl after my own heart! 

Her felt crafts are adorable and detailed! They're whimsical, bright, and slightly creepy sometimes, but I love that! Her most common themes include little female figures with button eyes, octopuses/squids, mushrooms, and cats. Her projects utilize many felt-crafting techniques with raw wool and sewn wool sheets, and also include many miniature items like needles, toothpicks, and glass jars, as props for the figures.

She has also made a few stop-motion music videos for They Might Be Giants!

Hine sells some of her crafts on Etsy, where she was previously a featured seller. She has many original hand-crafted miniatures, buttons, pictures, and phone cases up for sale! Go check them out. :D She's also pretty active on Facebook and posts pictures of her crafts-in-progress, food, and her kitty!

Thank you, Ms. Mizushima for allowing me to use your images for this post! みずしまさん、このポーストのための写真を使うこと許可、ありがとうございます！

Kanzashi - Japanese Ornamental Hairpins

Kanzashi are ornamental hairpins. There are many types, but the most well-known in the US is tsumami-kanzashi, made with folded squares of silk that are arranged into different shapes, like flowers.

Below is a short Japanese documentary about edo-tsumami kanzashi (江戸つまみ簪). These styles became popular during the Edo period (1603-1867). Edo (江戸) is the former name of Tokyo, and tsumami (つまみ) means "to pinch." The word "kanzashi" is said to have been derived from "kami" (hair) and "zashi" (stick).

The video is divided into three parts, but the last one is mainly pictures of examples, so I just included the first two. If you would like to see the last one, I can find it for you. For most of it, you can tell what is happening from watching, but I've made some notes for you below.

Video 1
0:42 - Some types of edo-tsumami kanzashi:
0:44 - Maezashi (前挿しかんざし) - Goes on top of the head
0:46 - Yokozashi (横挿しかんざし) - Arranged flowers with danglies
0:49 - Hirauchi (平打ちかんざし) - Pin/stick with a round part
0:52 - Kusudama (楠玉かんざし) - Ball
0:55 - Hanagushi (花櫛かんざし) - Comb
0:59 - 1:50 - Images of traditional art with women wearing kanzashi
1:50 - 2:25 - A kanzashi designer
2:26 - 3:08 - Dying the silk different colours by hand
3:09 - 3:43 - Making a rice-based glue
3:55 - Cutting the dyed silk into little squares
5:13 - He begins folding the petals (tsumami = pinch)
5:26 - He applies the glue thickly to a wooden board, to stick the shaped petals to. The red ones are "maru-tsumami" or "round folds," while the blue ones are "kaku-tsumami," pointed folds.

Video 2
0:10 - Punching out circles of thick paper to stick the petals to
0:33 - Arranging the petals into a butterfly shape (Chou, 蝶)
2:49 - Arranging petals into a flower
3:56 - Making a kusudama ball