Made in Occupied Japan

[Allen Neighbors]

Well, I'm finally back again. We left on a trip for a couple of weeks. While traveling, we stopped at a flea market in Arkansas. I bought this bowl. Cheap. Someone tell me... did they even make wooden bowls in Occupied Japan? Is there a chance that this is authentic, and if so, are there millions of them floating around?
It looks like it had some sort of finish that is ready to flake off.
The shot from above makes it look like the rim is really thick, but that's just a shadow of the side. It's almost a perfect thickness (3/8") throughout. The foot doesn't have any markings from a chuck.
I have no idea what type of timber it is made of.

[NeilS]

Someone tell me... did they even make wooden bowls in Occupied Japan?

Can't help you with info about the immediate post-war period, but traditionally wooden bowls were turned to be covered with lacquer, black or red, etc. Very few are left showing the wood grain like yours, so maybe it was made for export. The lacquer could have also been scarce in the post-war period.

.....

[Manuka Jock]

Allen ,
this page Made in Occupied Japan (http://www.the4cs.com/~cathy/MIOJ/) may shed some light on your find

[artme]

Interesting find Allen. Be good to sort out the history.

Glad you had a good trip.:2tsup:

[Allen Neighbors]

Thanks for the replies, Mates.
Manuka Jock, thanks for the link. I couldn't find anything to do with wooden bowls on that site, though... mainly for ceramics and porcelain. So I think I'll do a google search and see what crops up.
Thanks again,
Al

[hughie]

Al,
Tried a Google search with out much success. It will need a bit of time to trawl through all the sites. :C

[rsser]

AFAIK trad Japanese bowls followed a pretty standard pattern as to size, shape and finish. None of this arty-farty dream-up-a-shape stuff that we are prone to.

That bowl doesn't look like a trad one.

Somewhere in webland there's the report of a competition among mainly US turners to take the trad shape and do something creative with it. Someone posted a thread here maybe.

[hughie]

Did you mean this one?

http://www.woodworkforums.com/f8/japanese-wood-turning-western-perspective-97739/

[rsser]

Bingo.

Thanks Hughie.

[Allen Neighbors]

Thanks rssr, I've seen that page once before... probably when Hughie posted it.
Hughie, I found two that look just like it, on Ebay. Both in the auction, and starting bid for both is twice what I paid... five USD. I don't know whether to do a little sanding on it, or just leave it alone. We don't plan on using it, just sitting it around somewhere. Guess I'll just leave it alone.