Collapsed shed at our cheap countryside house reveals unusual Japanese gems from the past

Dilapidated outbuilding at the SoraHouse contains some surprise items that could tell a story or two.

After recently purchasing a dirt-cheap house with land in the Japanese countryside for just one million yen (roughly US$1,000), our team has been gleefully inspecting the property in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways.

This week, Go Hatori and Masanuki Sunakoma decided to get to work on clearing out a collapsed shed in front of the main house, which looked like it might contain all sorts of unusual treasures. Brimming with excitement, our intrepid duo donned their hard hats and pulled on their work gloves to see what lay inside the broken outbuilding.

▼ The storage shed is said to have collapsed, along with the roof, due to the weight of heavy snow a few years ago.

Go peered beneath the rubble, and the first thing he pulled out and passed to Masanuki was…

▼ A frying pan!

Then…

▼ Another frying pan!

In fact, the frying pans kept coming, until there were nine in total. This wasn’t exactly the type of treasure they were hoping to uncover, but Masanuki faithfully stacked the rusty pans on top of each other, hoping that their next find might actually be something they could use.

Their next find turned out to be…

▼ A ceiling light!

They appeared to be in luck, as a ceiling light could definitely be put to good use…if it were in working condition. They weren’t sure whether this one would work, but if not, not to worry — there was another one in the shed that looked incredibly similar.

And if those two didn’t work, they could always try…

▼ …this bamboo one!

▼ Or perhaps this panelled one?

That’s right — after finding nine frying pans, Go and Masanuki were now the proud owners of not one, not two, but four ceiling lights!

The next thing they pulled out of the shed was this unusual contraption. Any idea what it is?

It’s a “Hako Megane”, a box with a glass bottom for looking underwater! Go and Masanuki thought this was a very cool find, particularly as it was made from wood instead of plastic, which is what most of them are made from nowadays.

Next, Masanuki emerged from the shed with…

▼ …a figurine related to the Seven Lucky Gods!

This should definitely come in handy, seeing as these gods are believed to grant good luck. Adding the figurine to their collection, Masanuki and Go then decided to go around the back of the shed to get to some things they couldn’t access from the front of it.

Dragging a heavy object in a bag from the wreckage of the shed, the two of them opened it up to reveal…

▼ …a record and cassette player!

This was a blast from the past, especially with the sticker of 1970s folk group “Kaze” stuck firmly on the lid. It didn’t look like there was any hope of salvaging the machine itself, though, as it appeared to have suffered a beating from rain and humidity.

Go had a feeling this was a good spot to search for more hidden treasures, so he continued to poke through the debris here until he eventually lifted out…

▼ …this?

Taking a closer look, this mystery object turned out to be a triangular stop board, complete with stand and case, meaning it was still in great condition.

Boards like this are designed to be put together and placed a bit of a distance away from your car if you’re stopped on or beside a road, to alert drivers to the standstill and give them time to move away from your vehicle.

Image: Wikipedia/tanohei

The triangular stand was a surprise find that really got Go’s heart racing, prompting him to explore further beneath the ruins, his orange hard hat disappearing under the vines as he went.

He returned soon after with another mystery object wrapped in bubble wrap, which turned out to be…

▼ …a fishing rod!

The fishing rod was also in great condition, but that’s not all Go brought back with him, as he also had this in his hand.

▼ A retro rice cooker made by National! 

Retro patterns are enjoying a return to popularity at the moment, so this was another fantastic find that had our reporters beaming from ear to ear.

So off they went with their treasures, skipping through the rubble like schoolboys as they returned to the main building.

After inspecting what they’d found, our team decided that these were the two standout discoveries of the day – the National rice cooker and the lucky figurine.

▼ When Go grins like this, you know it’s been a good day at work.

Sure, our team might not have found diamond-encrusted jewels on the property, but these were gems all the same. The act of discovering these items and pulling them out of the crushed shed made them seem even more magical, and if they could talk, who knows what stories they might tell?

Now that these beauties have been rescued from the rubble they’ll have even more stories to add to their repertoire, but they’ll be more about bubble parties and river exploration.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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