A craftsman based in the mountainous town of Kumano, Hiroshima Prefecture, is expanding his works nationwide, which include wooden furniture and accessories made without using nails, and through active collaborations with designers and companies at home and abroad.
Yuji Takahashi, 45, who opened his studio Sashimonokagu Takahashi in 2010, uses a traditional technique called sashimono, in which wooden materials are combined by carving out grooves and fitting the joints together — no nails are used. His products are attracting attention for their comfort and well-loved design.
Before opening his own studio, Takahashi studied wooden crafts and furniture-making at a vocational school in Gifu Prefecture, then worked at sashimono studios in Miyazaki and Kyoto prefectures and polished his skills.
Takahashi’s latest work is a shelf called “hako,” which means box, made in collaboration with Karimoku Furniture, a long-established wooden furniture manufacturer in Aichi Prefecture.
He says the shelf’s design was inspired by the kiribako wooden box, from which the sashimono technique is said to have been derived. The design is simple, and the shelf appears beautiful even when viewed from the side or the back.
“In the world of sashimono, it is not the box that plays the leading role, but it is the object placed inside. Technique also plays a supporting role,” he said. “I placed importance on creating a shelf that does not make unnecessary noise on a quiet stage.”
In designing the shelf, Takahashi also drew on his own preferences for furniture he uses at home. For example, the grain of the wood is neatly arranged all the way to the back of the shelf, and the shape is made so that commercially available files can fit perfectly. The goal was to create a piece of undecorated furniture that blends in with everyday scenery.
The collaboration with Karimoku began when Takahashi met with Hiroshi Kato, vice president of the company, at an exhibition in Tokyo about five years ago. Kato also visited Takahashi’s studio in 2022.
“Mr. Takahashi’s furniture are not pieces of art that are full of technique, but tools for everyday life,” Kato said. “They have the power to enrich daily activities and the lives of their users.”
Kato said Karimoku aims to make furniture that will be loved and passed down for generations, and that corporate philosophy matched with Takahashi’s works.
Karimoku is not the only company Takahashi has collaborated with. In 2013, he released a chair using fabric from the popular fashion brand Mina Perhonen. Takahashi recalls that it was “a reckless ambition,” but that it paid off when he asked the brand’s designer Akira Minagawa to look at a miniature prototype and expressed his passion for furniture-making.
The collaboration with other companies followed, including for cribs and an armchair placed in a store in Osaka that provides after-sales service for the luxury brand Hermes.
Takahashi has produced furniture unswayed by trends and that bring out the beauty of wood to the fullest. While honing his skills, he aims to create furniture that is loved not only by those who use them, but also by those who promote their charms. “I want to make furniture that produces ‘a chain of being loved,’” he said.
He also feels a heavy sense of responsibility for his job, which “breathes new life into trees” that have been growing for 50 or even 100 years. “I want the furniture I make with my own hands to last 300 or 400 years,” he said.
The color of wooden tools and furniture change with age, and even scratches become a part of their charm.
Takahashi says he wants customers to enjoy the “maturity” of furniture that comes with time. “We want our customers to share their lives with the furniture they feel attached to and enjoy the passage of time with them,” he said. “I feel such a way of life is the richness itself.” Courtesy: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/03/25/japan/society/hiroshima-furniture-craftsman/