Shishi-Odoshi as a garden element
Shishi-Odoshi, or scare-deer is a device to frighten deer away. It is a unique garden element that you can see in residential gardens in Japan now. As you see in the photo below, a bamboo tube is set like a seesaw. when the open cut side has water in, the bamboo tube flips. And then […]
Streets in Japan
I like walking lively shopping streets in Japan. Those streets look like toy boxes. Unexpected encounters wait for us. In October, I had a chance to walk on this kind of street in early morning. Then I noticed some points which many people do not pay attention to.
What Inspires Us – Art of Bamboo
We’d like to start introducing you what inspires us as designers. “The Gate” by Tanabe Chikuunsai IV, currently shown at Metropolitan Museum in New York, as a part of “Japanese Bamboo Art: The Abbey Collection” exhibition 「門」四代目田邊竹雲斎作 Inspiration for: Possibility of Material, Movement, Transparency Here is the Video showing how it is made on site.
Image of Beautiful “Noise”? – Happy Fourth of July!
Have you ever seen fireworks from where you cannot hear the noise they make? I did once. It was surreal. I wanted to shout “where is the sound?”. Japanese landscape often has wonderful quiet quality as I said in “Image of Quietness and of Japanese Space“, our last blog. But it also includes images that must be accompanied by […]
Cat’s Eye View of Japanese Architecture vol.4 – Exploring on the Roofs
Japanese townscapes are often referred to as “roofscapes”. When you look at a town from a hill top or a castle, you only see the tiled roofs, either as a mass or as waving lines. But that is not how cats see the roofs. Cats love jumping over gaps and climbing series of small height differences. Japanese […]
