Digging Oahu

[wikiwiki]

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Finds cleaned up really nice.
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This bottle is a Chinese medicinal ginseng liquor. Took me and a friend a bit to translate (I can only read Japanese but he knows the Chinese readings). The embossing and translation is below since I suspect this is a not super rare bottle. Machine made.

Top Line: 裕生堂
Right Column: 舖在金山正埠華盛頓街
Middle Column: 自製参茸藥酒
Left Column: 門牌ハ百六十四號

Store Opened in San Francisco Chinatown,
House Made Ginseng Medicinal Wine
864 Washington St.

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I also picked up this broken but variant Mitsuya Cider bottle. I wonder if it was a cork or a crown top. It also has an unusual rounded heel like some wine bottles. View attachment 258755
I suspect this is an early type or maybe one that predates my expectations. This company began using the three arrow mark and the Mitsuya name in the mid 1890s with the earliest embossed bottles (as far as I know) being released in 1907. So, it's possible that this bottle is from before 1907 or after 1907. Either way, it's from at least before c.1915.
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Next is a Dorikono bottle (English advertisements call it "Durikono". This product was very much like calpico is now but with a different, slightly bitter mixture. This is one of the few bottles that came manufactured with a frosted look, its not haze. First released in the late 1920s, it quickly became a best selling product in Japan with ads soon appearing in Hawaii and California. It was praised as a general revitalizer, hang over cure, and cocktail mix. I believe this is the pre-war variant with no embossing on the body. There is an embossed variant but it is read left to right, only common after 1949. Dorikono was actually sold right up into the early 1980s.View attachment 258757

Lastly is a small food jar, likely of Japanese origin. It may have held Tsukudani which is a category of foods which were preserved by cooking it over a long time in shoyu which is salty. Not sure how else to explain it. Look it up if you are curious. But after much thought, its also possible that it held glue or paste. Not sure and probably will never be. Either way, it's a jar in a killer color.
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I think I have the same one and it’s paler taller sibling…Found in an area with other old Japanese bottles

 

[Hezezilla]

I think I have the same one and it’s paler taller sibling…Found in an area with other old Japanese bottles

Yeah, same kine. My jar has "B" on bottom. Yours the same?

 

[wikiwiki]

Jus blank on da small one but get one A on the big one

 

[Hezezilla]

Jus blank on da small one but get one A on the big one

Oh, cherry. By the way you get any Japanese beers or sodas? I'm writing a book on those.

 

[CanadianBottles]

Here is the base of the Chinese ginseng wine. To me, it is an in between of blown and early machine made Japanese beers. I was looking at all my beers and I feel like the crudity of it is only matched by pre-1905 stuff.
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Compared to a tooled HI beer, c.1910View attachment 258786
An early machine made Japanese beer, c. 1920
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And a really early etched Dai Nippon beer (early for Japan at least) c. 1906-1911View attachment 258788

Oh yeah that one definitely looks pre-pro, especially if it was made by a US glasshouse (which I imagine it likely would have been, it looks pretty American anyway).

 

[wikiwiki]

Oh, cherry. By the way you get any Japanese beers or sodas? I'm writing a book on those.
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I am looking forward to seeing your book! Similar finds to what we get here and interesting to see what people was drinking back in the sugar plantation days.

 

[Hezezilla]

I am looking forward to seeing your book! Similar finds to what we get here and interesting to see what people was drinking back in the sugar plantation days.

A lot of the ones in my book came off of big island. Over there get choke Japanese bottles. Sometime, I like go dig with some buddies on the West side.

 

[wikiwiki]

One of my favorite Japanese beer finds. I’ve seen ads for the brown Sakura beer bottles but not this green one.

 

[Hezezilla]

One of my favorite Japanese beer finds. I’ve seen ads for the brown Sakura beer bottles but not this green one.

Whoa! That's a new one for me too. I have a few sodas from this company and a few other pieces. If can, do you think you can post a full bottle photo and as much detail about it as can (embossing, manufacturing type, basemark).