More specifically, a Japanese traditional arts and crafts edition of the venerable American board game Monopoly. It looks like a perfectly weird combination of blatant Western capitalism and exquisite Japanese design.
As the Japanese arts and design site Spoon & Tamago puts it:
Instead of Atlantic Avenue you’ll own a Daruma doll business. Instead of Illinois Avenue you’ll own the Nanbu Ironware craft of making teapots. Instead of the railroads you’ll control Hato-guruma (Dove Cart), an enduring folk art made of a woven two-wheeled bird. By collecting these handmade toys, you’ll discover that they originated in Nagano and are associated with industrious effort because they appealingly depict they way a dove pecks at food while walking.
If like me you’re tempted to buy one for yourself, 5,000 limited edition boxes are on sale at nakagawa-masashichi.jp for ¥5,400, which is about US$46. Read more at spoon-tamago.com.
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