Ginza, located in the central district of Tokyo, Japan, is known as "the most expensive place in Asia" and symbolizes Japan's prosperity, renowned for its upscale shopping stores.
This area is a shopper's paradise, boasting a convergence of global brand products, with colossal malls lining the streets, showcasing fashion and individuality everywhere.
Moreover, Ginza's vicinity hosts the densest concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants in Asia, featuring Italian, French, Arab, and other international cuisines, allowing people to savor delicacies from around the world.
According to travel magazines, Ginza, representing Japan's nature, history, and modernity, ranks alongside Paris' Champs-Élysées and New York's Fifth Avenue as one of the world's three major bustling centers.
Centuries ago, this area was merely part of the ocean, but later, the Tokugawa shogunate reclaimed land from the sea, moving the mint from Sunpu (modern Shizuoka City) to Edo (now Tokyo). It was officially named Ginza in the third year of the Meiji era.
With the arrival of the "black ships," foreigners began to flood into Japan, settling in Ginza and bringing Western civilization and culture. Suddenly, cafes, Western-style bars, steam baths, Christian churches, and galleries sprang up in Ginza.
Japanese people tasted ice cream for the first time in Ginza, saw electric lights for the first time, and it was here that they were introduced to Western science and technology, making Ginza the gateway to the world for Japan.
Liang En and his companions were naturally indifferent to the luxury goods, not to mention the exorbitant land prices, which naturally led to higher prices for the goods sold, making the same luxury item about 20% more expensive than in London.
Even if Liang En were a tycoon, he wouldn't consider contributing much money to the Japanese at this location.
However, this didn't mean there was nothing in Ginza he wanted to explore. For instance, there were many antique shops that looked opulent and contained many treasures.
Like other shops in the area, these stores, with their decor and rent, tended to have higher-than-normal prices.
According to information Liang En previously obtained from Pierce, the selling practices of antique dealers in Japan differed completely from those in Huaxia (China).
According to local traditions, Japanese-owned antique shops would inform you based on their knowledge: this is old, this is new. And in areas they were unfamiliar with, they would also clearly tell you: I'm not knowledgeable about this aspect.
This situation arose because the antique community in Japan valued transparent pricing. Once a customer expressed interest and asked about an item, the seller would typically provide full and frank information.
For instance, if you wanted to buy a Yongzheng-era famille rose vase and it turned out to be a Republican imitation, the customer could fully return it. The seller would refund the money in full, even covering the postage.
This contrasted sharply with Huaxia's practice where the deal was final once an item was sold, unless the seller had agreed to accept returns if issues arose, which was highly unlikely.
In this regard, Liang En felt that Japan was far more customer-friendly than Huaxia, where too many unscrupulous individuals used the local rules as an excuse to deceive customers.
Of course, being Tokyo, the largest city in Japan and even in Asia, the antiques industry was mixed, with many foreign-owned shops, and as the saying goes, a large forest attracts all kinds of birds, so there was a higher chance of encountering counterfeit items.
Fortunately, the antique shops in Ginza were able to maintain these old practices, ensuring the authenticity of their items, although they were somewhat pricier.
Interestingly, among the clientele of Ginza's antique shops were many Japanese housewives, who primarily focused on antique pearls and complete sets of lacquerware or porcelain. The former was definitely for personal use, while the latter was for use in their homes.
In Japan, families of standing preferred to use ancient but well-preserved utensils and tea sets for important occasions, a practice somewhat similar to that of some European noble families. For instance, if hosting distinguished guests, they would retrieve various ancient utensils from locked cabinets to prepare for the banquet.
The antique stores in Japan were distinctively organized into "Japanese antiques" and "Western antiques" sections, where Japanese antiques referred to local items, and Western antiques to those from abroad.
After browsing a few antique shops, Liang En was quickly drawn to an item in the Japanese antiques section of one store—it was a pair of opened clamshells, but inside, the shells were adorned with gold, silver, and various colored paints depicting many patterns.
This was a uniquely Japanese toy, known as kai-awase, a game popular among the upper nobility from the Heian to the Edo period.
Kai-awase was made from matching pairs of clams, with the interiors painted with scenes from "The Tale of Genji," such as Ukifune, Dragonfly, and Kashiwagi, which are some of the more iconic scenes.
Players were divided into two teams, and the game involved composing waka poems. After distributing the kai-awase, the holder would split each pair, holding one half, known as the "playing shell," and randomly placing the other half on the ground, known as the "ground shell."
The game then started, with players trying to match their "playing shell" with the corresponding "ground shell" on the ground. A correct match, where the patterns were exactly the same, declared the winner. The game was decided by the total number of wins and losses.
From a certain perspective, this was an early version of the "match-three" games that appeared before electronic software. However, the cost of playing this game was much higher than playing on a computer today.
After all, producing dozens or even hundreds of beautifully painted shells was not something ordinary people could afford. Even the cheapest set could cost the labor income of a dozen farmers over one or two years, making it unaffordable for ordinary people.
Each pair of kai-awase was also considered a symbol of fidelity, and during the marriages of daimyo families, they were placed in special containers—kai-buckets—as part of the dowry.
For example, some museums in Japan today hold kai-awase from the Tokugawa shogunate era, with a complete set of 360 pieces stored in a black hexagonal box adorned with gold leaf and floral patterns.
Now, Liang En saw that the shell he was looking at was probably from the finest kai-awase of that time, unfortunately, it was only one piece, but even so, the entire item was not cheap, costing around two hundred euros.
Since bargaining was not an option in these antique shops, Liang En initially planned to look elsewhere for this item, especially since a complete set consisted of 360 pieces, so there might still be some out there.
However, after carefully examining the patterns inside the shell, Liang En quickly decided to spend the money and purchase this item, as the pattern was unusual and seemed to hide a secret.
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