Ok, this might not be Japanese, but this is the kind of stuff I like collecting and it has dual meaning to me. First off I inherited it from my Grandfather who was an avid collector of absolutely anything (might be where I got my antiques virus from) and it also shows how Eastern crazed the West was at the turn of the Twentieth century.

I can’t find any information for this item anywhere, but I can at least tell you what it states on the canister. The Samurai Perfume Co. was based in Newburgh, New York, which during the late 1800’s was quite an industrial hub (so much so that it is actually the first American city to be electrified and had the first electric street lights). This product was first registered under the Food and Drug Act on June 30, 1906. Reg. No. 10,168. This tin can be dated to 1914 due to the two IRS tax stamps affixed to the label, one for 3/8ths of a cent and the other for 1/4 of a cent. There is some Kanji on the label but my reading is rusty and can’t make out more than a few characters. Also, there are a lot of Japanese style imagery that may or may not be actual historical motifs and I haven’t had the time to try and decipher them. In any case, I don’t care, I just love the thing. If anyone out there knows about this stuff please let me know.

Here are a few close ups so you can check out the coolness for yourself.