[/floatl]BillingsGazette: Japanese dolls support dealer
Alan Pate laughs when he recalls his first visit to a meeting of the St. Ignatius Chamber of Commerce. As the meeting began, businesspeople around the table explained their lines of business and fielded questions. Finally, Pate's turn to speak came. "I said that I deal in antique Japanese dolls from the 18th and 19th century," Pate said. "The response was total silence. There were no questions, not a word really. I think people assumed I was some lunatic who would be in Montana for one winter and then be gone." As dealership specialties go, there are few more obscure than the one that has held Pate's fascination and paid his bills for the past dozen years. As far as he knows, he is the only person in either America or Japan who deals specifically and exclusively in the traditional dolls known as Ningyo. In fact, in Japan, he is known as "the Doll Guy," and has become a sought-after expert on Ningyo in the very country where these dolls were once a hallowed cultural tradition. "Anybody who has a Japanese doll question comes to me now," Pate said. "I've found myself alone in this field, not only in America but in Japan as well...I completely realize that I'm a really big fish in a really, really tiny pond. Who knew that this great tradition even exists in Japan, let alone that someone in Montana could make a living dealing in it?"...more...
