Buriki: Japanese Tin Toys from the Golden Age of the American Automobile

Long before Hondas or Toyotas were sold in the United States, the Japanese tin toy industry cast admiring eyes at the American market.

Known as Buriki in Japanese, the tin toys were made as early as the 1920s. But it was after World War II that Japanese toy makers made models of American cars, complete with friction, windup or even battery drive. And 70 of these toys are included in an exhibition at the Japan Society in Manhattan called “Buriki: Japanese Tin Toys from the Golden Age of the American Automobile” on display starting on Thursday.

The show is accompanied by a book from Yale University Press by Joe Earle, vice president and director of the gallery.

The Japan Society The Lincoln Futura.

Mr. Earle writes that for the Japanese of the 1950s tin toy cars “salved a pent-up thirst for glamor and beauty in the then impoverished country.”

One of the earliest toys is a Jeep, like those driven by General McArthur’s occupying forces. Another is a 1947 Cadillac 62 four-door sedan marked Made in Occupied Japan.

What is fascinating is the way the toys combine craft and manufacturing with an attention to detail and quality that foreshadowed the achievements of Japanese manufacturing to come. Toy makers eager to sell in the United States followed American styling trends. They, too, embraced the annual model change. The cars with what Mr. Earle calls their “bright, realer-than-real color schemes” demonstrate an almost feverish enthusiasm for Detroit style. There are even concept cars, such as the Pontiac Club de Mar and the Lincoln Futura. Today, many of the Japanese buriki toys are extremely valuable.

“Buriki: Japanese Tin Toys from the Golden Age of the American Automobile” will be on display starting on Thursday through Aug. 16 at the Japan Society Gallery, 333 East 47th Street.

Source: NYtimes