Kind of a Cool Japan Flea Market Find

[Daniel Griffin]

I was in Japan a few weeks ago and traveled up to the Kanazawa area on the Sea of Japan, sort of a difficult area as no one spoke English - not in hotels, restaurants or train stations. I was able to shop at an outdoor flea market and found this group fairly early in the morning. All are in about the same condition - worn.

[Ryukyutunnelrat]

WOW Dan, nice haul. I would have been excited to find all these caps in one place

[Bob Chatt]

Great hit DG....

[J7W22007]

Worn but still very nice to stumbled on load of hats.

Are there any hats with tags? Would like to see more photos.

Thank you for sharing.

Regards,
Taka

[Papa Nambu]

I'm happy if I just find one.

[Alan Smith]

Did you obtain any information from the seller as to why/how so many of these field caps came to be together in this grouping at a flea market?

[Bob Chatt]

I bought a group like this a few years ago in Southern Japan. Some were heavily worn and some had squadron markings on them, most were named.

[Walter Schmidt]

Did you obtain any information from the seller as to why/how so many of these field caps came to be together in this grouping at a flea market?

Antique dealer probably got it from a collector's estate. Since the guy sold all of them at once he probably wasn't a militaria dealer and just wanted to get rid of it. Aged collectors tend to sell bits of it to various dealers and collector buddies before they die at slightly lower than the market price, but perhaps this guy wasn't expecting it, or didn't care.

You can't find stuff like this in Tokyo because everybody knows what they're doing and sooner or later it either gets divided up or sold at a much higher price by a militaria dealer. Rarer stuff is harder to find in the outer regions but it's much cheaper. For example I just got a pair of ankle boots for 2k yen (20 dollars) in Kouchi Prefecture. In Tokyo nobody would sell that for more than 5k even if he wasn't a militaria dealer. A militaria dealer would FOR SURE charge more than 10k...I wish I had more time left in Japan.

[Daniel Griffin]

Did you obtain any information from the seller as to why/how so many of these field caps came to be together in this grouping at a flea market?

Always very frustrating, I cannot speak Japanese and the seller could not speak English, so I couldn't get any information.

[gunto]

Very nice find. just love flea markets.

[Dan T.]

Outstanding!!!