On Sept. 12, Takumi Alley: Tiny Train Town, a free artist market, was held at the Terasaki Budokan in Los Angeles, Little Tokyo.
Takumi Alley was founded in 2023 by Audrey Okeya and Kenzo Okeya, a married duo of illustrators. The seasonal event is also coordinated by Willa Lim and many volunteers. Over 20 artists vendored at the venue. Attendees also had the choice of purchasing a special VIP ticket for $30 for early access to the market and a Tiny Train Town box with themed stationery.
The market has a unique theme each time it is held, the most recent theme centered around trains. According to Audrey Okeya, the decision around the theme came about because all the artists liked trains. Previously Takumi Alley has been themed around camping and a haunted konbini (convenience store). Each theme has its own corresponding merchandise, illustrations and activities attendees can participate in.
The Tiny Train Town theme was spread across the outdoor area of Terasaki Budokan. Many of the artists dressed as train conductors and sold train-themed stationery that included stickers, postcards and other paper goods. A train-themed costume contest was also held and winners received merchandise from participating artists.
The Takumi Alley organizers also had small stations scattered around the venue for a stamp rally, a treasure hunt in collaboration with the artists, with a short story about Tiny Train Town. The short story featured Audrey and Kenzo as “The Bunny” and “The Bear” trying to get to Tiny Train Town to sell their stationery. The story featured original artwork and directions for attendees to follow in order to retrieve a prize from the Okeyas at the end of the stamp rally.
According to Audrey the Okeya family’s history is closely related to stationery.
“Not many people know this, but I grew up in a stationery family,” Audrey said.”My mom and my grandpa, they have a paper factory back in the Philippines,“We create like notebooks and everything, and that kind of instilled it in me subconsciously.”
During the Tiny Train Town market, guests were collecting stamps from booths in a dedicated journal or loose paper. Many of the artists in the market had their own unique stamps and stamping stations to encourage guests to collect them.
Asian artists who were present at Takumi Alley had also expressed their fondness and nostalgia for stationery, which would influence their work today.
“I loved going to the malls and going to Morning Glory and specifically collecting Japanese pens. And then even when I travel to Asia and Japan, Taiwan —the level of stuff that they have for stationery is just a world of difference. The usability of each item, and also they’re just so unapologetically cute,” said Juini Rainy Cheng, who owns the art business Juinimart.
Morning Glory is a South Korean stationery company that has had many storefronts in the United States. They are commonly known for their cute stationery designs. Stationery stores like Morning Glory are a lot more common overseas, especially in Asian countries such as Japan and Korea.
Artists expressed their appreciation for artist markets like Takumi Alley for making them feel seen and for spotlighting human-made artwork.
“We always love to participate in Takumi Alley. The organizers are such wholesome and nice people. They do everything that they can in order to make the vendors feel at home,” said Melanie Ho, who runs the art business TuziNeko with her sister.
Edited by Justin Ha