About the Identity
I originally studied Western-style furniture(specifically, Western furniture adapted for Japanese tastes) in the Kanto area of Japan. Since then, I have spent a great deal of time adapting the techniques and methods of Western-style furniture-making to create a unique style furniture that I can be peresonally satisfied with.
During this time, I have wondered if it was possible for my furniture to also reflect the architectural designs and patterns found inside of temples and shrines, things which I have enjoyed since I was a child. I have aimed to impart into my furniture, especially cabinets and boxes, my impressions
of my mother country and my own understanding of its architecture.
I started creating furniture with the aim of incorporating into its design, details from Buddhist temples, Isei Shrine (Mie Prefecture), and shrines in my neighborhood, and also the hard-to-define sense of orderliness and purity that pervades such places.
For my altars and cabinets I have specifically used such forms as the "Taisha" architectural style employed by Izumo Shrine (Izumo City, Shimane Prefecture) and Kamosu Shrine (Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture), or the "Shinmei" architectural style used in Ise Shrine. These two architectural styles are very close to my own sense of what Japan stands for, and so from time to time I have taken trips to these shrines to drink in the atmosphere of these places and to absorb the techniques and sensibility of my predecessors.
I personally feel that the current Japanese aesthetic, cultivated over many years and fed by Japan's rich cultural history, reaches beyond the regional boundaries of Asia and, at its current high level, can hold its own on the international stage. I hope to continue to push forward these explorations of Japanese traditional forms and identity through my furniture. Whether my furniture will remain a sort of unintelligible dialect or become a standard tongue, is something only the future will reveal.
