“Tezukuri Ichi” is a fleamarket held at Chionji Temple on the 15th of every month. Here you can by all kinds of handicrafts, ethnic clothing, food, pottery… what I tend to think of as “nice-stuff-I-don’t-really-need”. However, I like the atmosphere there (crowded yet curiously relaxed) and I like people watching, so I went along today with my camera to give you a glimpse of it. Quite by chance, I bumped into Rie Mandala, a local artist, who today was selling her collages and accessories here for the first time in three years. Here’s a snap of Rie selling her wares:

Rie’s collages are in her own words “…a gathering of elements that have various characters. It’s an art form which uses recycled materials like candy wrappers, tickets or labels found in many countries. Each piece reflects my foot prints and tells a story of my journey. It’s like the image of music dancing together mixing the sounds of our lives.”

This one is called “Memory”:

And here are some more pictures from the market. Go to flickr for a closer look.

To get to Tezukuri Ichi walk north from Hyakumanben along Higashioji Dori for approximately 3 minutes and turn in the temple gates on the right. Alternatively, walk east along Imadegawa from Hyakumanben until you see a ridiculous number of bicycles and then turn left. The market starts around 8.00 a.m. and finishes around 4.00 p.m. on the 15th of every month.

Here’s a map.