One of the most unusual model car collections ever to be presented to the public will be on view July 10-August 16, 2009 at the Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, New York. "Buriki: Japanese Tin Toys from the Golden Age of the American Automobile, The Yoku Tanaka Collection" spotlights tin-toy vehicles manufactured in Japan in the decades following World War II. "Replicating the automotive styling of Detroit's 'golden age' down to the tiniest fin, these pint-sized vehicles helped repurpose Japan's manufacturing sector from munitions to peacetime production," says Joe Earle, Director, Japan Society Gallery. "They also fed a pent-up thirst for glamour and beauty in the then impoverished country, as well as in the affluent United States."

I must admit that I prefer (car) models to be detailed and scaled to perfection. My early memories of Japanese toys were less than favorable so I've been prejudiced ever since, but this show opened my eyes by making me aware of the history behind it. The 70 tin-toy vehicles on view range from small, rudimentary examples made in the fledgling phase of Japan's postwar toy industry, beginning with a bottle-green Cadillac sedan stamped "Made in Occupied Japan" to later, elaborate models made for the high-end American market. The latter often sport a combination of battery-powered lights, electric (as opposed to friction or clockwork) motors, remote controls, chrome trim, and retractable parts. Many of the featured tin toys retain their original packaging, including one 1959 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner convertible whose cardboard box touts, "amazing pushbutton automatic top-forward-reverse and steering." A 15½ inch-long 1962 Chrysler Imperial, manufactured by Asahi Toy Co., is another highlight. A foot-long Greyhound Bus, from the mid 1950s, with faces of blonde schoolchildren painted on tin tabs in the windows, is among the unusual road vehicles on view, along with a camping trailer attached to a 1955 Oldsmobile.

A 96-page, fully illustrated catalogue by Joe Earle provides an historical and cultural context for Japanese tin-toy vehicles and comprehensively documents the 70 works in the exhibition. It will be available at the Japan Society Shop, and booksellers nationwide for $15.00. Meanwhile I suggest that the show's organisers give some thought to displaying it at other cities in the US and Canada. This is too good to be limited to New Yorkers.