Vintage Japanese Wooden Kanban Shop Sign, 1920s

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Description

Tall wooden kanban shop sign from Japan, originating from an early 20th-century trading house. The sign is carved from a … Read more Tall wooden kanban shop sign from Japan, originating from an early 20th-century trading house. The sign is carved from a wide plank with a deep vertical grain and still has its two original iron hanging brackets at the top – ready to be used again as a decorative wall panel.

Dimensions: height 165.5 cm, width 31 cm, depth 2 cm.

At the top a shield-shaped logo is carved into the wood, with a circle and Latin letters around a central monogram. Below runs a column of large, elegant kanji with the brand name and product . On both sides are narrower columns of text with additional information about company and origin; in one of them you can see the characters 株式會社 (kabushiki gaisha – comparable to “Co. Ltd.”), indicating that this was an officially registered business. Due to heavy weathering not every detail is still legible, but the calligraphic lines remain beautifully visible in raking light.

The wood shows a pronounced wabi-sabi patina: weathered silver-grey tones, darker streaks, drying cracks and a rough lower edge tell you this sign once hung outside for many years. That ageing is exactly what makes it such an interesting object today – a narrow, vertical wooden “totem” that becomes a strong graphic accent against a wall or in a hallway in a Japanese, industrial or minimalist interior.

A purely decorative, sculptural piece of Japanese commercial history for anyone who loves real patina and wabi-sabi. See less