APPRAISER: What areas of Japan did you live in?

GUEST: Well, we were in Tokyo for two years in language school, and then we were down in Yaizu, the fishing village, to Kariya in Aichi-ken, to Okazaki, and then up north to Sendai, and then for nine years in Sendai, and then we ended up in Toyota, where the cars are made.

APPRAISER: Toyota City.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: The sister city to Detroit.

GUEST: That's right.

Yeah.

APPRAISER: (chuckling): Yeah.

Now, what did you do in Japan?

What was the purpose?

GUEST: Well, we were missionaries, uh, church planting.

APPRAISER: Now, this is an interesting piece of Japanese art that you've brought with you today.

Tell me where you got it.

GUEST: Well, we were in Northern Japan, at Sendai, and, uh, one of our friends, a college professor, was retiring, and we went over to bid her goodbye.

And at the, uh, that evening, she had received many gifts from her students.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: And she just couldn't take any more with her.

And so she turned to us, said, "Would you like this?"

And I was very happy to receive it.

APPRAISER: Really?

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: Now, having lived in Japan, you can explain some of the significance of some of these items just as well as I can.

For example, the symbol... GUEST: Of the plum.

APPRAISER: ...of the plum.

GUEST: That blooms in January and February when the season's at its coldest.

APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST: So it's a sign of endurance.

APPRAISER: And here we have... GUEST: The bamboo.

APPRAISER: The bamboo.

GUEST: And that bends with the wind and doesn't break.

APPRAISER: Right, and the pine, we have the young pine.

GUEST: Oh, I don't know why they had the pine in there.

But it's always those three.

Shochikubai.

APPRAISER: Sho... Right-- now, the one thing that kind of confused you about this piece was this bird here.

GUEST: That bird.

APPRAISER: Now, you know that, having lived in Japan, there are a lot of rivers there, and along the river, there are hawks that fly over those rivers and prey.

This happens to be a white hawk, uh, which is very rare, but also, it works kind of nicely with the plum blossoms that we have up above here.

GUEST: All right.

APPRAISER: What we see here are all young trees.

We see a sprouting pine.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: We see just young bamboo shoots, and not the very thick stalks.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: We also see a tree that's growing and coming up.

Notice all the branches are going upwards.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: That shows youth and vigor and endurance, as well as the white coat of the hawk, which shows youth, as well.

So the Japanese people love these enduring images... GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...of things that happened around their time.

What I think we have here is a very, very fine example of Japanese scroll painting.

It's signed down here, signed by the artist, as well as... GUEST: The, the... APPRAISER: ...the seal chop, or the hanko.

GUEST: The hanko, yes.

APPRAISER: This came in its own balsa wood box.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: As, as part of the gift-- you'll... GUEST: It even smells good.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

(laughs) GUEST: (laughing) It does.

APPRAISER: It sure does.

Now, a piece like this probably today would bring anywhere between $500 and $1,000 for a collector at auction.

So it's a, it's a pretty nice gift.

GUEST: A nice gift.

(laughs) APPRAISER: Yeah.

(laughing) GUEST: Anyone else has them, I'll take it.