I have had this vase for approximately 40 years. I received this as a wedding gift. I am wondering what its value is.
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This is a lesson I learned the hard way many years ago. Be sure to find this match exactly when comparing values and not just the pattern.
BTI (before the internet), I was selling off some of my grandmothers small vases at the flea market, most of which were dime store items because her grandkids would break things so she bought cheap items when we were young.
I just assumed everything in my pile was a dime store vase--they all looked alike to me as they were almost identical patterns of small, vases from Japan.
What I didn't know then was one was occupied Japan and back then there was still value in OJ pieces. Before the internet I would have to go to the library and pour over books to figure out what I had in the antiques I was selling. I was just being lazy and didn't do my research.
So, I had these all vases out for 50 cents each and a guy scarfed one of them up quickly. Just the one. The next week I went back to the flea and he had my vase up for sale in his inside booth for 50 dollars. Live and learn!!
So that said...it is all so much easier today.
My best suggestion is don't waste time trying to find the translation on the internet unless it comes up immediately in a reverse image search (which yours did not). If you have a college or high school nearby where they teach Japanese, they should be able to offer you a translation (hopefully for free), then you can go to eBay solds and find the company and maybe your exact piece so you can value yours.
Sadly, in general, most Japanese vases from the 1980s have little value in today's market, BUT I learned not to assume--but to verify!
Post back what you learn! Thanks for sharing!
Your vase appears to be shibata but most of their pieces have the name 'Shibata and Japan as well as the marks but yours does not. Also the 'Made in Japan' seems to be a paper label (?) and I do not remember seeing this type label on any of their pieces. From your picture it appears there was another marking that was removed or? Does it appear that way when looking at your vase?
The vase on Etsy seems to be the same pattern but a different style vase and could also be a different size which may be an important difference. The marking is definitely not the same as yours but seems to be the authentic Shibata mark.
www.etsy.com/
As to value it does not appear that any Shibata pieces are selling for very much money. Sales on eBay all appear to be low and now that holidays and gift giving is gone for 2019 sales may be very slow.
www.ebay.com/
You will have to find a dealer who can read the makers mark on the bottom of the vase.
This is an excellent site to identify the marks on the bottom of your vase. After this one, you know who has made the vase it is a lot easer to find out how much it is actually worth. I would start here on this site to see if you can identify these marks first.
www.etsy.com/
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