Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Enjoying Ebay: Choose Your Words Carefully

If you're shopping for Japanese items on Ebay, it can be challenging trying to sift through all the junk to find legitimate, authentic items.

One way to narrow down your search is to use the specific Japanese names of what you're after, no matter how rare or esoteric you think it might be: you'd be surprised at how much you can find that way. Here are a few random ideas to show what I mean:

Geisha items:

geisha kanzashi (not perfect at weeding out junk, but more specific than "hair ornaments")
geisha katsura (geisha wig)

Samurai items:

jinbaori (surcoat used with armor)
yoroi (armor)

Kimono/kitsuke:

koshihimo (hidden ties)
obiage (obi scarf)
yukata (this and all the following are types of kimono, more or less from casual on up)
komon
tsukesage
houmongi
furisode
tomesode
kurotomesode
kakeshita
uchikake
shiromuku
mofuku

The use of the names doesn't guarantee authenticity, of course, but it can go a long way in narrowing down your search. Kimono are a lot easier to find if you don't have to pass over 8,000 satin bathrobes to get to them. ;)

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