The 9th Nishikasai Token Ichi was held at the Tokyo Nishikasai shop for five days starting from Wednesday, September 6th. This time as well, we placed advertisements in the metropolitan area editions of the Yomiuri Newspaper morning edition that covers Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, and Kanagawa Prefectures. Also, we utilized social networking services, such as Facebook, in an effort to attract customers. It is my impression that the social networking services were effective since in addition to familiar regular customers, there were many young people visiting the shop for the first time. We made every effort to create a good shop atmosphere and provide detailed explanations so that these new faces will become sword enthusiasts and regular customers in the future.
We will place an advertisement in the Toto Yomiuri newspaper on August 25th in the edition No. 1930 as an advertisement for the Tokyo Nishikasai shop. The Toto Yomiuri Newspaper is an affiliate of the Yomiuri Newspaper and was first published in 1975. It is distributed as an insert in the morning edition of 15,000 Yomiuri Newspaper readers' households in eastern Tokyo; the entire Edogawa-ku, Koto-ku, Sumida-ku, and Katsushika-ku, and some areas of Adachi-ku, Taito-ku, and Minato-ku. After many meetings with the representatives of Toto Yomiuri, we were able to come up with an ad design that we were satisfied with to help promote our shop. We hope to increase our local awareness and attract more customers in the future.
The 2nd Yamagata Token Ichi Sales Event was held at the Yamagata Big Wing for 3 days from Friday, July 28th. The weather outside was scorching hot the entire weekend but the venue inside was air-conditioned and comfortable.
There were many sword enthusiasts who visited thanks to the kind words from the NBTHK branches located in Yonezawa, Shonai, and Yamagata and advertisements in the local newspaper. At the event, I was able to enjoy talking with the local enthusiasts and collectors. We didn't meet the goal of selling 10 swords, but we were able to sell 6 and 3 of those were to first time sword buyers. I feel this was a good result for the 3-day event. During the day, I gave explanations to visitors, and in the evening, I was able to eat delicious Yamagata cuisine.
Next year in 2024, the 3rd Yamagata Token Ichi Sales Event will be held for 3 days from Friday, July 26th. We will do our best to prepare a wide range of attractive swords and fittings so that Yamagata enthusiasts can look forward to the next Yamagata Token Ichi Sales Event. We look forward to seeing you then!
The 21st Noda Token Ichi was held at the Business Hotel Noda for three days from Friday, July 14th. Although it was an extremely hot day in the Kanto region, many customers visited the event. From this event, we changed the sword racks from a wooden cloth stand to a transparent acrylic stand so that the exhibits can be clearly seen. We also placed an event flag at the entrance of the venue to create interest. We were able to exhibit a sword display box to promote a new sword appreciation style. This was the 21st time to hold the Noda Token Ichi. It is held every year in January and July. There were many customers who were looking forward to this event, and all the staff worked hard to welcome and take care of them. Thanks to everyone, our efforts paid off. I will continue to do my best for all future events!
The 2nd Morioka Token Ichi sales event was held for 3 days from Friday, May 12th at the Iwate Prefectural Information Exchange Center in the hope it would be a good opportunity for the people of Iwate Prefecture to become familiar with Japanese swords and attract new and existing sword collectors. In addition to making advanced newspaper advertisements, I was interviewed by local newspapers, Iwate Nippo and Morioka Times, and articles about the event were published in the Saturday morning edition. The awareness of the event was able to spread. The visitors were not only local, but also came from the neighboring prefectures of Akita and Aomori. Also, we had a visit from the contemporary Mukansa Swordsmith, Yamaguchi Kiyofusa, who is 90 years old. We were able to hear about his valuable experiences with his forging skills and Mochi tetsu (local iron). The performance of the event was lower than usual, but I feel there is potential. I will do my best to make the next event in May 2024 a success.