白牡丹本店

About this photo

A large glass display window opens onto a stone-paved sidewalk. Above it, the characters 白牡丹本店 (Hakubotan Main Store) line up, each on its own square plaque, and higher up on the wall are a round ornament and two lamps with horizontal stripes. At the shop next door on the left, lanterns, stacked boxes and the character 氷 (ice) can be seen.

The comment below the photo says that the low-relief decoration on the coping stones and the stained glass in the transoms show a refined Japanese taste, and that they nicely bridge the accessories on the display shelves and the tiled walls. It ends by saying that the whole shopfront could be called a piece of architecture that works as a case for Japanese-style accessories.

Look closely at the long, horizontal glass above the display window. At its left end is a single line of Western letters, and to the right of it, small white shapes like spread wings are scattered at different heights. Inside the dark glass, only those white shapes stand out, dotted here and there.

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