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KUSURI AND CHO DANSU
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KUSURI DANSU
The Japanese medicine chest with its numerous, tiny drawers has become one of the most popular collectibles among small Japanese cabinetry. The chests were used as long ago as the tenth century by doctors and medicine peddlers, and in pharmacy shops, to store the many herbs, roots, tree barks, flower petals, tea leaves, powders, minerals, and even dried insects considered of medicinal value. By the early sixteenth century, medicine chests were being produced and used on a wide scale in Japan. In addition to the stationary chests used in pharmacies and by doctors, portable models were used by travelling medicine peddlers in rural areas.
Medicine chests were produced on a large scale early in the Edo period (1603-1868), they comprise some of the oldest of Japanese cabinetry .
Because of their long history in Japanese life, these chests were produced locally in villages all over Japan by the beginning of the Edo period and continuing through the Meiji era (1868-1912).

MERCHANT CHESTS
Multi-drawered and bearing heavy ironwork, the conveniently sized merchant chest is a favourite for homes and offices even today. It belonged to a shop merchant and it was kept in his shop in full view of the public, and was used to store his account books, ink and writing  material. It represented the shop owner's prosperity, so it was constructed of good materials and heavy ironwork. These chest are quite appealing and are usually good investments.
It contains numerous drawers of various sizes and one or two sliding door compartments of varying size and placement. In a typical chest, a single, wide drawer stretches across the top, beneath which a sliding door compartment and then a set of drawers are located. Along the right side of the chest runs a vertical series of three to five small drawers, some with and some without locks. This chest can contain two sliding door compartments, so the second set of sliding doors is located at the bottom, extending across the full with of the chest.
Sado Island is where merchant chest production began in the mid-Edo  (1691-1790) period, but soon thereafter, these popular chests were produced all along the northern Japan Sea coast, especially in the Niigata area.