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). 

[Steph]

Nice find.  Lucky buyer.  Thanks for sharing. 

[akroorka]

This is some cool stuff and a great find.
I have never seen such a thing before.
@YasudaCollectorwill like these and maybe @Al Oregon and @hdesousa will as well.
Nice find—thanks for sharing them.
Marble—On!!
 

[YasudaCollector]

I agree! Original boxes are always a very nice find! This box seems to fit the same era for Japanese cat's eyes too. 

[davesnothere]

That's a cool find definitely don't recognize the colors in that box.

I may be suspicious in nature but somethings off with the box. It's too clean with the damage looks like the roached label was put on after.

Just my opinion. 

[shiroaiko]

8 hours ago, davesnothere said:

That's a cool find definitely don't recognize the colors in that box.

I may be suspicious in nature but somethings off with the box. It's too clean with the damage looks like the roached label was put on after.

Just my opinion. 

davesnothere, opinions are welcomed. I understand your point that we should be cautious...yet the box was sold at 2390 Japanese yen, approximately 16 US dollars. I wonder what is the point of selling a box at such a low price, if someone wanted to make money out of a fake box. 

Something I felt interesting is the changing images of Santa Claus. 

1929 (Showa 4) registered trademark publication by Ukichi Yasuda. The address is Sakai-city, Osaka. The main product of Yasuda at that time was glass bangles for Indian market. I don't know if Yasuda made glass marbles then for sure. 

A pre-war Santa Claus box exported to India. The address is Shiba, Amami-mura, Osaka, where Yasuda's marble factory was in operation from 1933 (Showa 8). Ukichi Yasuda had to stop producing marbles due to the war, and in 1944 (Showa 19) the factory was sold to the current owner.

From "Record of Manchuria-China Industrial Development: Commemorative Issue for North China Development", 1938 (Showa 13). Ukichi Yasuda has two factory addresses; the one in Shiba, Amami-mura and the one in Hanyu-mura (both locations are in Osaka.) I could not locate the address in Hanyu-mura.

Reapplication of the registered trademark by Ai Yasuda, 1949 (Showa 24). The address is Tamate, Kokubu-cho, Osaka. Ai is a female name. The UY is still seen on the Santa's clothes. 

The blue-eyed  Santa Claus from the ohajiki box. JIS Z6206 means Japanese export from 1950 Dec. to 1953 Nov..

 

JIS S4004 means Japanese export from 1953 Dec. to 1962 Feb..
A cat's eye box that E. A. Kempski owns.