Culture / Events

Tokyo Gets $2 million Christmas Tree

Jeweler Ginza Tanaka is going all out this season with a two-meter Christmas tree made with pure gold wire that’s as fine as angel hair pasta.

Nov 23, 2016 | By AFPRelaxnews

Want to impress the kids this Christmas? A Tokyo retailer has just the thing – if you’ve got about $2.0 million to spare.

Jeweler Ginza Tanaka is going all out this season with a two-meter (6.6-foot) Christmas tree made with pure gold wire that’s as fine as angel hair pasta. If this sounds familiar, that’s possibly because the same jeweler made a splash with something similar some years ago.

The shop in Tokyo’s glitzy Ginza district says the 19 kilogram (42 pound) tree is made up of more than 1,200 meters (3,950 feet) of gold wire.

“The wire is made of the finest gold which has a 99.999 percent purity level,” Ginza Tanaka store manager Takahiro Ito told AFP on Tuesday.

Ito said the tree was made by the jeweler’s in-house artisans. The price tag? A cool 200 million yen ($1.8 million).

While it may be a stretch finding a buyer, Ito said he hoped the opulent display would show off Japan’s world-famous craftmanship.

“We want them to see our great technique and craftsmanship, and the glittering beauty of gold,” he said.


 
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