Walking into the Matsuzaka Ivory Shop is almost like disembarking from a time machine. One minute you're among the futuristic 21st-century gizmos spilling out into Chuo Dori, the main drag of Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district; the next, you're back in the realm of a craftsman whose tools and techniques have changed little for hundreds of years.

There, as likely as not, Junichi Matsuzaka -- legs crossed beneath a small workbench set on a raised platform behind his display counter -- will be in the process of intricately incising a chunk of ivory or bone, transforming it, before your eyes, into a timelessly ornate masterwork in miniature. Perhaps this will take the form of a Buddhist icon to be placed in a family shrine; a hanko (personal seal); or a traditional figurine, such one of the seven lucky gods or 12 animals of the Asian zodiac -- possibly, just now, one representing the coming Year of the Monkey.

Using quite ordinary looking tools, 59-year-old Matsuzaka crafts his material with surprising deftness, rounding corners, smoothing edges and boring holes with a traditional rokuro (spinner drill). Within minutes it begins to take shape.