About Us

About Artes Japonica

Artes Japonica consists, as of this year (2008) primarily of myself, Guy de la Rupelle, though I often work with a couple of associates (in France and here, in Japan).

I am based in Chiba, which is located about 40km east of Tokyo. Years ago, it was true that we sold the kinds of antiques we fell in love with (small tansu, writing boxes, tea ceremony sets, etc.), however we have felt that specializing in Japanese armor and armor-related items was a logical choice (we had to narrow down our passions). Indeed, even in doing that we have much to learn and this will be a lifelong process

We don't sell breakable goods such as tea ceremony bowls, imari ware, and kimono.

We had been selling swords, but as of January of this year, we will no longer do so, except in a few exception (specials requests, and buyers who understand the shipping costs). In late December we discovered that most carriers will no longer carry swords as part of the postal shipments (EMS), and as of this writing, only FedEx will handle the shipment of swords albeit at a hefty fee. About $400 to, say, the UK or Australia, and there are few buyers we know who will pay that much for shipping. As far as we know, however, tanto are ok via EMS (small size?).