Unique Asian Furniture
The Yokosuka Navy Base has many bazaars at which you can find everything and anything Asian! The Navy Exchange sponsors the largest bazaar twice a year, in October and April. There are many interesting pieces of furniture in particular. In a surprising two-day sweep, we bought four pieces of furniture and have no more room in our small house for any more! But we couldn't pass up these unique finds!

Japanese Step Tansu (Tansu means "chest")
In the late 17th Century, Japanese people lived in small living spaces, usually with lofts. The main simple idea of the step tansu was to have storage as well as access to the upstairs. But the step tansu soon served another clever purpose. Since taxes were assessed on livable space, the step chests were made in 3 pieces so that they could be dismantled when needed to form a rectangular chest, concealing the stairs to the tax man. People could claim the upstairs was storage only and not livable space and therefore their taxes would be lower. Pretty ingenious! The symbol on the drawers of this tansu means "double happiness."

Antique Chinese Cabinet
This cabinet is a Chinese antique with elephant-bone ivory inlay, which is not used anymore. The Chinese calligraphy is a poem about how the cycle of life is like the four seasons. The pictures depict Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter as well.

Secretary's Desk with Hidden Bench
This desk is very simple, yet the curved lines of the desk top are definitely Asian. At first glance, this looks to be a console table. However, the lower "shelf" is separate and pulls out to make this piece a small desk and chair.

Small Bedside Table
This bedside table also has the curved lines on the table top. It has many little drawers and a couple of cabinets, but it also has two secret drawers that hide behind panels that slide out. This seemed to be a common feature of many Asian pieces of furniture we saw. I won't show you where they are and see if you can guess! And of course we had to have an Asian lamp for our new nightstand.