I studied in Japan during the summer of 1990 while I was in graduate school for my architectural degree. The
precise detailing of so much of Japanese life fascinated me. So many beautiful cans have been produced by the breweries
there that Japanese can collections like Sean Kelley's show a level of artistry far beyond most. This series of "Favored
Views" is one of my favorites. I have nine different ones and would dearly like to know if there are more and if so
which ones and of course how to get my hands on them. I can not translate the Japanese characters and have relied upon
Bill Besefer's wife to help, let me know if any of the labels are wrong.
Sean Kelley sent me the following:
Regarding the "favored views" set, there is an expression in Japanese called "Toudoufuken" to describe
how the geography of Japan is divided up. The "Tou" is for Tokyo. The "Dou" is for Hokaido. The "Fu"
is for Kyoto. The "Ken" is for the rest of Japan, which is divided into prefectures ("ken" in Japanese).
8 of your 9 cans are of various prefectures (the last kanji in parenthesis is "ken") while one represents
Hokaido. The 8th can pictures Tottori prefecture (your webpage says Daisen Mountain, which is what the
white print on the can says, but all your other photos translates the black print).
I fixed the 8th can's description based on Sean's message, and I just found a picture of at least one more can I need
for the set: Kumamoto. If you have one for trade please contact me.