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A small museum of Japanese objects in Fukuoka. We find out where a piece was made, by what method, roughly when and what it was for, and we write that down — including the parts we could not establish. The rooms are arranged by material: paper, clay, wood, metal.

Fukuoka, on the north coast of Kyūshū in western Japan. The house is not a shop with opening hours; correspondence is the way in.

Where we give a period, it is the period we can support. Where the age of a specific object cannot be established — which is often, for folk craft that was never signed or dated — the label says the form is traditional and does not claim an age for the object. We do not use "antique" loosely.

Yes, to 32 countries: see Where we ship. Ceramics and bronze go double-boxed with a rigid inner shell. We do not pack with straw, sawdust or untreated wood shavings, because several countries — Australia and New Zealand in particular — will hold or destroy a parcel packed that way at the border.

Write and say what you collect. Codes are issued by hand, not on request from a form, and they are tied to a person rather than to a purchase.

Where an object is shown to explain a craft rather than to present a specific piece in our hands, the object shown is representative of that craft and its region. Any piece offered to a collector is photographed as it is, including damage.