Designer: Unknown

Item: Kounoike Leather Elephant Store Display Coin Bank

Manufactured by: Ikeke Seisakusho

Country of origin: Japan

Year made: 1960s

Materials: Leather, brass and steel

Dimensions: 8” x 12” x 7”

Description: Here is a very rare and very large Kounoike leather elephant store or advertising counter display coin bank. We have handled dozens of Kounoike leather banks over the past ten years, but we have never seen one this large. Based on the label affixed to the bottom (see last photo) we are quite certain this was the store display or advertising example for use in the Shirokiya Department store. In addition, as the elephant is the most well-known and commonly found Kounoike coin bank, we believe it stands to reason that this jumbo example would be a store display. We have included a photo of the regular sized elephant coin bank next to it for scale. It marked with both the impressed Koinoike symbol of a bird and the label of the Shirokiya retail store where it was likely used for display purposes.

According to the limited amount of information available on the Internet, Ikeke Seisakusho was a long established Japanese leather manufacturer that began making these banks in 1965.  However, we have also found some information about other long established leather goods makers in Japan with the surname Seisakusho. Although we have yet to determine who actually designed these banks, we do know that these were sold in higher-end stores in Japan, as evidenced by the retailer sticker of the Shirokiya Department store store in Tokyo, Japan.

Shirokiya Department store was originally founded in 1662 as a dry goods store and over the next four centuries evolved into a specialty retailer starting in the very early 20th century. In 1959 Shirokiya opened its first branch outside of Japan in Hawaii, where two more locations would eventually be opened; the second in 1973 and the third in 1981. This historically important institution went out of business in 2021. Given the time period of the manufacture of these coin banks and the opening of the Hawaii location in 1959 and move into a larger location in 1966 (now a Macy’s), we surmise that some of the Kounoike leather banks found in the United States were sold from the Shirokiya Hawaiian outpost. The English language printing we have seen on two original Kounoike packing boxes also suggests they were manufactured and marketed for the American market.

Condition: Excellent.