The Search for More Flea Markets

I've discovered yet another monthly market, this time at Chionji temple on the 15th of every month. I managed to find some time in the afternoon to wander around it a little. I'm kicking myself a bit now because I remembered to bring my nokyo-cho, but I forgot to get it stamped while I was there.

                                                            Delicious delicious candy. Gorgeous wrapper.
Emoticon time.
*>_<*
I don't believe I saw any of the same vendors that I've seen at the Touji or Kitano Tenmanguu markets. Some of them were selling very similar crafts and wares: traditional ceramics, leather bags/wallets/purses, jewelry, traditional Kyoto textile-crafts...

I had a deep sense of satisfaction when I left the market, though; that feeling I always get after I support independent artists. At least, I'm fairly certain it was local, being at a local flea market... The  prints belonging to a young artist/illustrator--who calls herself Kiri--caught my eye.  I've been to enough dealers' rooms and artists' alleys that it was almost an automatic reaction. The textures of her pieces, the expressiveness of the figures, and gentle assertiveness of her lines intrigued me. I stooped down to look through her prints folder. I paused in the middle of a series of adorable western zodiac anthropomorphism illustration to say, "Aa, Libura desu!". We started talking--or I started stumbling through a spontaneous conversation in Japanese. Explained where I was from, what I was doing in Kyoto, that I was a design major myself. From what she told me (and from I so cleverly observed) she works mainly in pen with watercolors and acrylics. It was a nice, stumbled-through conversation. And I had a heck of a time deciding which prints I wanted to buy. I ended up not buying the Libra print, but Falling Cherry Blossoms and a Woman's Kimono and Kimono Twins.

Kiri's website is kirixxxx.seesaa.net: you can see the prints I bought if you scroll down and click on the art gallery link on the left side. (Or if you want to see her blog in Google-translator broken English then here.) Or this is even easier for finding the prints.

So it was fantastic meeting a really kind and patient young artist selling her art and having a conversation in Japanese, albeit a short talk. I also found some very impressive soap carvings. There were some cute simple ones in small animal shapes, bunnies, and such, but the ones that snagged me were small soap lotuses, beautifully dyed, set in a small wooden box. (Their website is here.) 
As a last note: I found one of the best souvenirs yet at Vivre earlier.

Yep, ye olde hometown shirt. Randomly in a clearance rack at a Japanese department store. (Mom points out that the established date on it is completely wrong--it should be1768--but there was apparently a Charlotte (Malachowski) Bühler born in 1893...Nothing to do with the Queen City though I think. Then again, I can't read the script above the eagle emblem. Doesn't look like an "Est.")

And the last, last note: some awesome Engrish from a clothing tag