Famed antique and art dealer Samurai Shokai (サムライ商会) at Honcho 1-20 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. It sold silk, porcelain, lacquerware, jade, cloisonné, damascene and more.
The company, established by Yozo Nomura (1870-1965) in 1894 (Meiji 27), was one of the most respected dealers in Japan. It even offered financial support to traditional craftsmen, such as silversmiths and lacquer artists, so they could produce high quality products.
Terry’s Guide to the Japanese Empire, published in 19201, features a glowing review:
Three years after these words were published, this repository of Japanese art burned to the ground in the Great Kanto Earthquake, but Nomura managed to rebuild his company and thrive.
Nomura, whose wife was a Christian activist (he himself was Buddhist), made it his mission to introduce Japanese art and culture to the world. He was a well-travelled man and for example visited Hawaii annually where he met members of the influential Cooke family, good customers of Samurai Shokai. The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) to this day owns many pieces supplied to the Cookes by Nomura.
Later, Nomura would also become the owner of the New Grand Hotel in Yokohama. When on August 30, 1945, General MacArthur spent his very first night in Japan at the New Grand, he was welcomed by Nomura, then already 75 years old.
In spite of his old age and the many hardships he must have endured during WWII (Yokohama was almost completely destroyed by US air raids), he was still a master at treating an important customer.
In The Fall of Japan2, William Craig describes MacArthur’s first meeting with Nomura:
MacArthur repaid Nomura’s courtesy by showing much trust and insisting that his food was not pre-tasted. As recalled in Maihafer’s Brave decisions, it was a compliment that Nomura took to heart3:
Japan Today: A Souvenir of the Anglo-Japanese Exhibition Held in London 1910, published in 1910, features a brief introduction to Nomura that sheds some light on his background4:
1 Terry, T. Philip (1920). Terry’s Guide to the Japanese Empire Including Korea and Formosa. Houghton Mifflin Company, 6.
2 Craig, William(1967). The fall of Japan. Dial Press, 294.
3 Maihafer, Harry J. (1999). Brave decisions: fifteen profiles in courage and character from American military history. Brassey’s, 160. ISBN 1574882074
4 Mochizuki, Kotaro (1910). Japan Today: A Souvenir of the Anglo-Japanese Exhibition Held in London 1910. The Liberal News Agency, 479.
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Duits, Kjeld (). Yokohama 1900s: Samurai Shokai, OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN. Retrieved on April 29, 2024 (GMT) from https://www.oldphotosjapan.com/photos/818/samurai-shokai
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