Maruwaka Hirotoshi is an award-winning designer and one of the founders of GEN GEN AN by EN TEA, a Tokyo-based tea house that’s actively broadening notions of what Japanese tea can and should look like. Even before becoming a tea master for the new millennium, Maruwaka straddled the worlds of...
Kawara are the roof tiles that define the historical cityscapes of places such as Kyoto. Yasuhiro Ichinose, the successor of a family business specializing in traditional roof tiles that has recently celebrated it’s 100th anniversary, is looking to expand the scope of kawara products beyond roofs. Yasuhiro has been involved...
Kyoto is seemingly hot these days. On a hilly path near the golden temple Kiyomizu-dera, a new art and tools shop just had a grand opening. The entrance reads “Japan’s Art and Tools Shop Nittodo” on a traditional Japanese shop curtain sign. I get excited with this type of shop typically...
If you know about Japanese tea ceremony it’s often associated with being very serious, having to kneel a long time and if you’re interested in learning it, the hurdles seems to be hight since it requires many years of practice. Simultaneously more people all over the world are starting to...
For the past 100 years, Kondo Seisakusho has, quite ironically, specialized in handcrafting tools to be used outside. Notably, tools for farming and agriculture that originally were on the brink of extinction due to the constant flooding. ...
When we moved to the US the hardest thing for us to find were beautiful, lightweight table ware. Everything in the US is oversized and extremely heavy. They are obviously made for larger tables and larger portions. We ended up buying most ceramics at MUJI but the most challenging of...
If you’re interested in design or architecture as well as into Japan (which is probably why you’re reading this) the likelihood of you being familiar with the term “wabi-sabi” is pretty high (if not, I highly recommend reading Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers). “Wabi-sabi” is a way to...
A new tea house called Uji-Kochakan recently opened in Uji, the tea capital of Japan. They specialize in black teas, 30 varieties to be exact, that come with cookies in multiple flavors or a beautiful. On their menu is this beautiful 30mm thick pancake with an original sauce that is not at...
Before even knowing what it was I got really excited when I saw this wallpaper pop up on Instagram. When you look at the cup you’d probably think it’s yet another coffee shop but it turned out to be a new “tea stand cafe” in Daikanyama and Sendagaya in Tokyo....
When I was younger I didn’t listen too closely to my grandfathers stories which I regret deeply. He used to be held prisoner in Russia during the second world war. I only remember pieces of his stories that he would repeat often the older he got but we never thought...
I’d like to start this publication by introducing one of the most famous Japanese ceramics “Arita”, easily recognizable by it’s blue and white color. Past When thinking of Japanese ceramics, the first thing that comes to mind with a high probability is Arita ware. The reason for it’s international recognition...
