a sneak peek at my kitchen
January 9th, 2007
Ilva of Lucullian Delights recently announced a fun little blog event, Show us your kitchen. So here it is, the crown jewel of my tiny, cramped apartment kitchen—my mizuya tansu, or Japanese kitchen chest. The photo doesn’t nearly do it justice, but it’s a beautiful yet functional piece of kitchen history.
My mizuya tansu is around one hundred and thirty years old. It has an ancient grace, yet its lines are clean and modern. I particularly love all its little details, the small sliding cupboard, the tiny, narrow drawer (for chopsticks?), the small, deep cupboard with the pull-out door (for tea? sake?), the decorative iron lock (a cash box for paying home-delivery food vendors?).
I’ve found uses for all the nooks and crannies of my mizuya. The tiny, narrow drawer is perfect for small or narrow items that get lost in larger drawers, such as meat and candy thermometers, a syringe and needle for injecting brine. The wide, shallow drawer holds a shortbread mold, a marble cheese board (good for rolling pie dough), some extra aprons, silicon muffin “tins”, and a madeleine tin. Pots are in the largest cupboard, bowls on the top cupboard, and baking dishes in the lower cupboard. The mysterious pull-out cupboard sometimes stores a bottle or two of olive oil, or loose bags of spices. Come to think of it, that unusual storage space might be a good spot for keeping tea and coffee.
The mizuya tansu is a silent testament to the past. Looking at it, I wonder about its previous owners. Were they rich or poor? Did they live in the city or the country? What did they store in their mizuya tansu? Were they good cooks? Only the tansu knows.
January 9th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Thanks! What a beautiful piece of furniture!
January 9th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Thanks Ilva! I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. Interestingly, I saw some antique pieces in Stockholm that are similar in style.
January 11th, 2007 at 6:30 am
That is a gorgeous piece!
January 11th, 2007 at 7:14 am
Thanks, Kristen!
January 12th, 2007 at 4:13 am
Nice prized possesion
January 12th, 2007 at 7:26 am
Thanks, Anjali!
January 12th, 2007 at 8:41 am
Isn’t that beautiful?! I used to have an old Hoosier in my kitchen (I divorced it) and loved the practicality of it as well as the beauty of the workmanship. I’m so happy you found such a beautiful piece of history and are putting it to good use.
January 12th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
Thank you, Sally! There’s something remarkable and slightly mysterious about old furniture, isn’t there? Less so with regards to Lay-z-boys from the ’70’s :).
January 14th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
You have a jewel. I can imagine everything that has been in those beautiful drawers. Congratulations!
January 14th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Gracias, Zulmy!
January 14th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
wow, shelly that’s gorgeous. wish i had something like that to contain my overflowing cupboards. adds much character to a place, as opposed to a boring, mass produced ikea piece :O). how did you happen to come to own this, if i may ask?
January 15th, 2007 at 7:34 am
Thanks, burekaboy! A and I have fallen in love with Japanese tansu (storage chests). We’ve got one for clothes and the mizuya tansu for dishes. After years of lame Ikea furniture and anything we could find used, we decided to get some proper furniture that lasts a lifetime. The tansu were a bit expensive, but not much more expensive than a brand new industrial piece.
There’s a nice antique store called Talisman Antiques not far from where we live. We bought both pieces there.
April 3rd, 2009 at 5:18 am
Nice tansu. That’s the half size version of what you can still find in old farmhouses here in Japan. Problem is, they will not fit in the smaller modern Japanese houses! Don’t you love the smallest door that lifts up and out!
I’m sure you have your tansu set up just how you like, but I think… that…, the top piece is on the bottom and the bottom is on the top. Typically, the large sliding doors are on the bottom, and the drawers are at a height to be used without bending over. I may be wrong, and I’m not a “tansu purist”, just thought you might want to know. I have repaired a good number of these over the years.
However you choose to use it, thank you for using it. Old furniture isn’t much appreciated over here, surprisingly.
scott
April 22nd, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Thanks! Dunno about that… the bottom piece have little grooves on top to help put the top piece on top. (Did that make sense? :)). The grooves may have been put in by the guy who fixed up the tansu though…
We’ve moved since this post. We now use the mizuya tansu as separate pieces in the living room. The bit with the drawers is a sort of stand/desk/centerpiece–our Mac lives on top of it. We use the Mac as a multimedia platform (stereo/movie theater/TV) as well as a computer.
The other half is also in the living room. It stores DVDs and CDs. On top of that half, we’ve placed a vintage radio made of teak, an art deco metal fan and a sort of upright prism-shaped glass lamp (from Ikea). Looks quite cute, if I don’t say so myself :).
I’m with you on old furniture. Love it.