Ohajiki flat marbles from Santa Claus box

[shiroaiko]

A recent Mercari (Japanese online market) find of flat marbles which were filled in a Santa Claus box. The image of Santa is a bit different from the examples that have been reported to us so far. This Santa got blue eyes. The box was sold to a current owner about half a year ago. I was lucky enough to get the screenshots, reach the owner and the seller. The seller, a toy collector, listed the box at an inexpensive price. He didn't know the box to be rare. 

The Santa Claus box is not originally prepared for domestic market. JIS number Z6206 means a Japanese export from 1950 Dec to 1953 Nov.. My guess is Yasuda got many unused Santa boxes which were already glued with Z6206 labels even after Z6206 expired. He filled the boxes with flat marbles and sent them to domestic market via wholesalers. 

The seller described the box to be from "Showa 30's" which means 1955 to 1964.

1952 National Factory Registry says that Yasuda Export Glass Marble Factory made flat marbles along with nishiki-dama (cat's eyes).