Daibutsu, Kamakura

Daibutsu, Kamakura
Daibutsu in Kamakura, June 2010. There were thousands of school kids visiting that day. It was still great fun.

Monday, August 17, 2009

iPhones for the Warring States Period

If daimyo lords from the Sengoku or Warring States period of Japan carried iPhones, they probably would have carried them in these:


According to the Los Angeles Times article, in Japan, a set of the above handmade cases is being offered for the phone. Each case is covered in a special lacquer and gold dust. The most likely warlord to have carried one of these would have been Toyotomi Hideyoshi and probably the least likely would have been Uesugi Kenshin and his heir Uesugi Kagekatsu. Hideyoshi was very fond of things gold, he even had a gold tea room.

The five designs were inspired by the Sengoku period which ran from the 15th to the 17th centuries. In one of the cases you can see a faint outline of a warrior in black. Each case takes about a month to produce and comes with a booklet describing its historical context.

The cases are offered by SoftBank BB and they cost about $1,000 each.

The original article comes from the tech site CrunchGear.

9 comments:

  1. For crazy people with money.

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  2. They are quite beautiful. I do enjoy Japanese artwork in all its forms. There are elements of design that the Japanese have mastered, even from the simple to the very elegant, it is poetry for the eyes.

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  3. They are really nice to look at. But even if I was Bill Gates rich I probably would not justify $1000 for a phone case. They are more like works of art that should be on display somewhere.

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  4. You know, I often think that if I purchase the right car, keep it garaged and drive it sparingly, it will be worth a small fortune in 20 to 30 years. We may look back in later years and think 'that only sold for $1,000 back in 2009!

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  5. I just saw these at Big Camera in Ikebukuro, looks great. But they also sell gilded stickers for 400-500 yen ($4-5) that give you (almost) the same effect. They had a number of different mon designs.

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  6. I would buy the stickers.

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  7. Anonymous5:00 PM

    Yeah, me too. The stickers give you the nice design, but without the hit to the wallet.

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