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The renovation will begin in May 2023 and be completed in 2026 for a 2027 reopening ahead of an important occasion: the 1,125th anniversary of Sugawara no Michizane’s death. Keeping the shrine completely out of commission for a three-year renovation wasn’t an option, since Tenjin is worshipped internationally and Dazaifu Tenmagu draws up to 10 million tourists every year. The renovation will repair the hall’s thatched Japanese cypress bark roof and its lacquered interiors, and make the whole structure more resistant to earthquakes.

Fujimoto’s single-story temporary sanctuary hall will be set up in front of the honden hall to host rituals and worship. Made of steel beams, it’s designed so it can be quickly built in just a few months between February and May 2023. The temporary hall is the same size as the main hall but will be open to the air, set on a black platform with a single solid wall in the back. A ramp enables wheelchair access, and unlike the main shrine, the temporary hall will also allow visitors to enter without taking their shoes off.

The temporary hall’s defining feature is its tilting green roof, which will disguise and soften the construction going on behind it while also creating the spectacle of a “floating forest.” Grasses, shrubs, and full-size trees will be transplanted onto it for the effect of a mature forest.

At a press conference, Fujimoto said, “I aimed for a design that can connect the tradition of Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine with today and pass it down to future generations.”

“We will build a ‘cave’ in front of Kumamoto Station to welcome everyone to visit,” says the team at the Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine. “Since it has only been exhibited for three years, we wanted it to be a place that will be pleasing to the Tenjin Sama and all the visitors. It has been designed to blend in with the surrounding landscape, carrying on the tradition and connecting to the future.”

Sou Fujimoto’s unconventional nature-oriented approach to architecture has produced some incredibly unique projects in the past. For his “Flowing Cloud” resort complex in China, the architect created a terraced plan cascading down a hillside, partially covered by a ceiling made of woven grasses. In Budapest, the Hungarian House of Music revives a 300-acre city park with 97,000 square feet of both open and enclosed exhibits and theaters, all topped by a distinctive circular roof inspired by the vibration of sound. And in Maebashi, Japan, the architect’s renovation of the Shiroiya Hotel produced a faux hillside covered in greenery, trees and walkways.

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The precision of this installation was no mistake. The architects went to great lengths to make sure their creations felt like a natural part of the forest, as if the tents were giant drops of water that landed there and remained frozen in place. The design process began with 3D scans of the natural environment, which mapped the position, size, and shape of each tree down to the tiniest details. Yuko Nagayama Associates then determined how their massive teardrops could fit in the available spaces without disturbing the natural setting.

The architects wanted their tents to enhance and reflect the surrounding trees while also maintaining their own dramatic presence. Standing more than 30 feet high, each of the three inflatable tents faces a different direction, its pointed tip visible from a distance. For those inside the tents, the not-quite-transparent material blurs the forest without blocking it out, lending the experience a surreal, dreamlike effect. The pointed shape encourages visitors to look straight up at the canopy and the sky.

Each of the three tents has a different function. One is for sleeping, one is for gathering, and one is for solitary study or contemplation. Visitors were invited to stay in them overnight, their sleeping bags providing their only cover in a place where privacy is hard to come by.

The event took place at Kiyoharu Art Colony, which was established on the former site of an elementary school in 1983. The village includes museums, studios, restaurants, and shops set among birch trees and Yoshino cherry trees, with arts exhibitions taking place indoors and out.

Architectural works on site include creations by famous architects, including the Museum of Light by Tadao Ando, where exhibited pieces interact with natural light; the Kiyoharu Shirabaka Art Museum by Yoshio Taniguchi; the studio of painter Ryuzaburo Umehara created by Isoya Yoshida; and even a portion of the original stairs from the Eiffel Tower. One of the most popular features on the grounds is the Tetsu “treehouse teahouse” created by architect Terunobu Fujimori, which stands on a central pillar of an 80-year-old Japanese cypress and hovers four meters above the ground.

On Instagram, Yuko Nagayama Associates revealed that they weren’t quite ready to move on from their unusual teardrop tents once Hokuto Art Program ed.1 was over. For lead architect Yuko Nagayama’s birthday, the firm commissioned a special cake from Katsutadai cake shop VIN ROSE that captured the scene in sugar, matcha powder, and little birch trees made of pasta.

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“In this renovation, instead of designing everything from the beginning, we designed it while proceeding with dismantling,” the architects explain. “The elements of the past, which emerged as the demolition progressed, provided considerable inspiration for the design.”

Located in the Koishikawa/Hakusan area of Bunkyo Ward, an area historically full of bookbinding and printing-related facilities, the building once housed a printing factory in its lower half and a private residence in its upper half. The second owner converted the entire structure into a home. When Akira Mada and Maya Mada of MAMM Design purchased it, they wanted to restore its former live/work layout, but adapt it to their personal needs and style.

They started with the staircase, which was contained within its own dark, dim walled stairwell. At first, they envisioned knocking out the concrete walls and putting a skylight at the top to create an atrium, replacing the old stairs with new ones. But as the demolition revealed the jagged concrete edges of the walls and the internal rebar supporting the old concrete stairs, they realized they wanted to keep some of these elements in the finished product.

Thus appeared the home’s star feature, the skeletal metal staircase now entwined with living vines. Stretching the full height of the building, the stairwell is topped by a skylight that can be opened for exposure to the fresh air, with a ladder providing rooftop access. The old rebar staircase is now purely decorative, with new stairs piercing the floors and ceilings in other locations.

The rugged nature of the exposed concrete and metal contrasts beautifully with new elements the architects brought in, like blond plywood, salmon-pink tiles, and translucent partition walls. Additional plants, like small trees in oversized planters, help draw a sense of vitality into the rest of the home and out onto the balcony and rooftop.

The renovation also revealed some surprises. Had they started the process with rigid ideas of how everything should look, the architects might have missed out on some defining features that add a lot of texture and historical context to the redesign.

“In order to apply a new finish to the outer wall, I scraped off the existing plaster finish, and found the glossy tiles from the beginning of the new construction,” says Akira Mada. “I thought it would be a good contrast with the green of the newly planted trees, so I polished it and decided to use it as it is. In this way, as we proceeded with dismantling, we carefully read the existing shapes and materials, and sometimes gave them new meanings.”

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The high and low points of the installation seem to shift as they catch the light from different angles, creating a dynamic, almost kinetic effect. Designed by famed Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the British Antique Museum opened in September 2022, honoring the close relationship between the town of Kamakura and Great Britain.

Just a one minute walk from Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine and a seven-minute walk from Kamakura Station, BAM exhibits British antiques collected over the years by museum director Masaomi Dobashi. The museum consists of four floors, each representing a different era and theme. The first floor is the museum shop, featuring a London taxi and telephone box. On the second floor, visitors will find Georgian-era antiques, including leather trunks, red cloaks, and bearskin hats worn by the Royal Guard.

On the third floor, visitors step into the world of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels with a Sherlock Holmes-themed exhibit that recreates the fictional detective’s study and living space down to the most intricate details. The museum explains that “in the front, there is an armchair that invites clients in, and the gourd-shaped gasojin (soda water maker) that appears in Holmes’s story, as well as antique microscopes and physics and chemistry equipment, are reproduced as they were at the time.”

Standout objects on the museum’s Victorian-themed fourth floor include a John Broadwood & Sons piano, an extra-large gramophone made in 1935, a fireplace from a Kensington mansion, and stained glass featuring an image of Queen Victoria.

“As a connection between Kamakura and England, there is the National Trust movement that started in England in the Victorian era,” Dobashi explains on the BAM website. “It is the permanent preservation of historically significant land and assets through donations, and many scenic spots have been preserved as heritage. Kamakura is the place where the idea of the National Trust was introduced for the first time in Japan. ‘Kamakura’ is linked to the desire to cherish the good old British things, and the wonderful cultural heritage is still inherited.”

Kuma’s process of designing the British Antique Museum is documented in the book Kengo Kuma: Creating a Small British Antique Museum in Kamakura by Masaomi Dobashi, revealing more details about the connections between Kamakura, Great Britain, and Kuma, who also designed V&A Dundee, a branch of London’s Victoria & Albert Museum located in Dundee, Scotland.

“British antiques and modern electric cars are exhibited there, and it can be said that it is a timeless fusion of old and new,” Kuma says. “This time, the British Antique Museum BAM, which stands on the approach to Kamakura’s historic Dankazura, is lined with pure antiques that have absorbed more than 100 years of time collected by Mr. Dobashi. In that sense, I thought that the design of the building should be as pure as possible. As a result of repeated deliberations, we eliminated all the windows and made it simple, adopting a facade inspired by Kamakura-bori, which symbolizes the traditional culture of Kamakura.”

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The architects have created a little slice of paradise in the city by building artificial streams that curve through the property, almost making it feel like the residents live in a much greener Japanese version of Venice or Amsterdam. The placid body of water squeezes through the spaces between buildings, leaving slices of lawn for picnic benches, café tables, and beautiful blooming cherry trees. The precise edging and perfectly laid sod make it clear that it’s a man-made feature, but the effect nonetheless remains. There’s just something so relaxing about gazing out at the water from inside.

Take a glance at the photos of the warm wood-lined interiors, massive sliding glass walls, and natural daylight, and you might think to yourself, “yet another luxury home that’s unattainable for the vast majority of people on Earth.” That’s usually true with projects like this, but Awazuku House isn’t a private home — it’s a series of rental houses sharing the tranquility of this setting with a broader range of people, not just the wealthy owners. Set on the edge of the city, the complex offers a peaceful place to live with close proximity to the perks of the city.

“Four houses for rent in Koda-Cho, Nukata-gun, Aichi Prefecture, located in an area far from the city center with an impressive landscape of beautiful woodlands, temples, fields, curving paths, streams, and hedges. How could these locational elements be connected to life? At the same time, the real estate agent told us that the rental stock in this area was already saturated with regular apartments and condominiums,” the architects explain. “So, we began to conceive that we could rent out a comfortable life here, taking advantage of the rich environment, which spurred the idea of ‘lending.’”

“Lending a room — lending a building — lending with land — lending an existing well, lending a field next to the main building — supporting the farm work of the parents of the main building, then ‘renting the environment,’ which eventually led to ‘renting the environment’ including human relations. Each wing of the building has a loft, and the windows of every floor have a view of the back mountain. The height and position of each building and the direction of the roof slope are determined so that the views do not overlap with each other and interfere with the line of sight from the loft floor.”

The architects repurposed stone from an existing stone wall once piled up around the site as soil retaining walls. A pillar and beam from the home that already existed on the property has now become a series of benches along the waterways. Hedges help regulate the flow line of the water and ensure privacy. The water itself comes from the old well, which is no longer in use as potable water. Now, it’s both a beautiful visual feature and a source of emergency water supply in the case of a water shutoff.

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Restaurant owner and chef Motonori Hirata was looking for something brand new that felt long-established. “I was asked to design a building as ‘heavy’ as possible,” says Ishigami. “’I want an architecture whose heaviness would increase with time,’ [Hirata] said. ‘It cannot be artificially smooth but rather something with the roughness of nature. Authentic cuisines require such a place.’ He also told me that ‘it has to look as if it has been there and will continue to be there for the longest time.’”

Creating such a structure in the middle of a modern residential neighborhood presented plenty of challenges. Instead of focusing on what he currently had to work with, Ishigami took a subtractive approach, concentrating on what he could have if he removed parts of the existing space.

That line of thinking resulted in an underground cave dwelling that’s every bit as organic and “heavy” as it is practical and functional. Ishigami began with a design that would leave the roof of the new building flush with the ground level. Using state-of-the-art 3D software, he was able to determine the exact points for pile driving. When construction began, workers “dug the holes manually for precision while constantly confirming the position and shape on an iPad.”

Once all the holes were hollowed out, concrete was poured in to create the form of the organically-shaped columns. Then the rest of the space was excavated to create the living and working areas.

Ishigami tried to embrace accidents as they popped up, working the unknown into the process. “Unexpected factors such as growing grass, soil collapsing, or errors due to manual labor were tolerated as much as possible,” he notes. He hoped that the by accepting these “un-precisions,” he would create an architecture that “internalizes natural distortions and uncertainties.”

The original plans called for washing away all the dirt to reveal a gray concrete structure, but Ishigami and his team were so impressed with they way the soil-caked columns looked that they chose to leave them as-is. That decision is what gave the project its cave-like feel and inspired a redesign of the interior spaces, which now include a bedroom, bathroom, industrial kitchen space, and three courtyards that can be filled with dining tables during restaurant hours (or used as living spaces at other times).

Almost imperceptible glass creates walls around the structure to keep it warm and safe from the elements. The flat roof was filled in with concrete except for three skylights, and whitewashed to keep it distinctive from the surrounding topography.

Considered a design wunderkind in architecture circles, Ishimgami started his career with Kazuyo Sejima at SANAA, after graduating with a Master’s in Architecture and Planning from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 2000. In 2004 he started his own firm, junya.ishigami+associates, and has since gone on to win multiple awards, including becoming the youngest-ever recipient of the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize in 2009 for his ultra-thin glass Kanagawa Institute of Technology workshop. In addition to his architectural work, Ishigami also serves as the Kenzo Tange Design Critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

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Most kids’ bedroom designs that “grow along with them” transform in some way, often with modular elements that can be dissembled and reassembled into new shapes. It’s unusual for the design to be static and contextually flexible, like “The Room for Small Gulliver” by rhymedesign.

Architect Taka Shinomoto, rhymedesign’s founder, renovated an apartment in Nagoya, Japan to include elements that can shift in function as the clients’ child grows up. Those same elements are also usable by the adults in the house, just in different ways. Central to the design are three gray frames: one incorporated into a massive built-in book shelf, one that’s mobile so it can be moved around the space, and a large nook that frames a bay window in the kitchen.

“As in Gulliver’s Travels and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, bodies of idiosyncratic scales can turn mundane lives into fantasies and dramas,” Shinomoto explains. “The relative body sizes can put the same environment in different perspectives — for adults, chairs are always to sit on, while for children, they could function as tables, desks, and counters. Looking up at the world from below, children find and experience the world in their own ways. As they physically grow, they also develop new relationships with the physical environment.”

The architect continues: “For the Room for Small Gulliver, I designed the three different sizes of gray frames. The largest is installed as a frame of the bay window facing the outside. The smallest is part of the bookshelf. The other is portable; it can be anywhere in the room. I designed them to grow relationships with the child, as his body and mind matures. The nook where his body completely fits can soon become a casual seat. The gate to the closet will not remain as it is experienced today, when the children’s body feels it differently. The portable frame should turn to a counter from a secret capsule in the near future.”

One of the coolest aspects of this design is that the child’s space isn’t separated from those of the adults. It’s actually in the living room, making the bulk of the home shared family space, though the parents do have their own tranquil bedroom for privacy and quiet.

The child’s experience of these spaces will change over time, but his enjoyment is considered just as important as that of the adults. While the shared areas are airy, white, and brightly illuminated, the bedroom is more like a cave, with the walls and ceiling painted a deep forest green that matches the bedding. The entrance to the closet is hidden behind an oversized picture of deer in the woods.

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The fact that the clinic is a live/work environment goes a long way towards giving it a homey vibe, which is instantly more relaxing than a sterile institutional facility. The dentist, a director in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, will use this new location as a second home base. Set in an area full of medical facilities and just down the street from a nature-rich area with parks and museums, the location straddles the line between the professionalism of a more conventional setting and the comfort of a home.

“We thought it would be best to create a simple and relaxing environment stripped of stress and fear, an easy place for patients to visit,” the architects explain. “It is also the client’s desire to contribute to the community as a dentist by being able to create this project. As an architectural project, the essence of this design emerged by combining the management philosophy of the dental clinic with the architectural solution.”

First and foremost is curb appeal. The plot is designed with plenty of trees in both the front and back, with large windows looking out at them from the lobby and treatment areas. From the moment they walk up, patients can see that this is no ordinary dental clinic. Inside, they’ll find beautiful spaces lined entirely with wood for a warm and cozy feeling. The exterior walls are made of unpainted cedar wood cladding, and the interior is finished with structural plywood. Once seated in the chair, each patient will be able to gaze at branches gently waving in the breeze as their treatment commences.

According to the firm, “the private rooms were first arranged assuming the patients would not be threatened by a fearful feeling, but instead with a relaxed environment as they look at the forest in front of them. The rest of the spaces are allocated as necessary to support the dentistry functions. The second floor has a residential function, and its shape has a set back from the private rooms on the ground floor. The solution was not to prioritize a wide space, but we had a desire to create a space for treatment within it.”

“To solve the problem in a deductive way, design started from the treatment space and then passed to deciding on other elements, thereby eliminating any arbitrary operations and making the space for the patients the first priority. The idea was to create a dental clinic that would be easy for patients to come to, and that they would return to again and again.”

The dentist’s private living quarters on the second floor are designed so that in the future, they could be used to expand the clinical facilities. He might not always want to live there, and wants to leave open the possibility of creating a special treatment area for children. The architects designed the floors with space for the necessary pipes and utilities so that it would be possible without a significant remodel.

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The Origins of Shou Sugi Ban

This wood finishing technique originated in Japan, but the popular interpretation of the phrase has gotten a few things wrong. “Shou sugi ban” is technically a misreading of Japanese characters that actually say “yakisugi,” so you might see either term used on the internet. Roughly translated, it means “burning cedar board.” As the name suggests, it’s traditionally only used for Japanese cedar, which has a naturally high resistance to rot, mold, and bugs.

Contemporary usage has expanded the technique to other types of wood, which technically makes it something other than yakisugi — but the benefits and effects are similar. Light, porous softwoods are generally preferred because they allow the heat to penetrate deeply into the wood without twisting or splitting.

How it Works

Traditionally, boards burned in a vertical prism form are laced together with string, lit on fire, and allowed to burn just long enough to char the exterior before they’re doused with water. The propane or gas torch method is as simple as it sounds: you burn the wood about 2 to 3 millimeters deep for five to 10 seconds, then spray it with a hose. Both processes are typically done at the building site, but some manufacturers specializing in shou sugi ban do it in their own facilities instead, shipping the finished product.

After burning, various techniques can be used to change the overall effect, either leaving the dark char intact or wire brushing it for a lighter hue. Coarse sandpaper can also be used. This will change the texture from the roughness of scaled alligator skin to a smoother, more visible wood grain, and can remove some of the surface carbon to avoid messiness in certain applications. Natural oils like pure tung oil can be used to seal the wood and deepen the tone, if desired. If re-oiled every five to ten years, yakisugi siding can last a century or more.

Applications of Charred Wood Siding

Use shou sugi ban anywhere you want the look of dark, dramatic, and well-protected wood. It’s most often used for exterior siding, but we’ve seen yakisugi wood utilized to brilliant effect in interiors, too. And its uses aren’t limited to just architecture. You could also apply the technique to fencing, wooden planters, and other outdoor accents.

Some notable projects we’ve covered that incorporate shou sugi ban include the gorgeous Grotto Sauna in Ontario, the exterior of a dream bathroom by Bette, a Japanese tea house by Terunobu Fujimori, and a handmade log cabin. Lighter versions of the technique can be seen on the exterior of the Escape XL tiny home on wheels and a modern kitchen addition to a home in England.

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The answer was something unique. “A place where the cuisine is based on the Italian virtues and combines them with the Japanese. It does not exist in Denmark. Both kitchens focus on simple, good ingredients and don’t combine a whole lot of different flavors — they keep it simple,” explained Andrea Calducci, Head Chef of the new Restaurant Levi, in an interview with European media.

Calducci, a renowned chef who has run prestigious restaurants in Shanghai, London, and Dubai, was persuaded to come to Denmark by Restaurant Levi founders Jesper Boelskifte and Peter Trauboth. They named their new place, built out of a former parking garage, after their muse, famed Italian grappa master Romano Levi.

“Romano Levi managed to create his very own universe, where both the product and the packaging were completely unique,” the owners say on their website. “That’s what we strive for with Levi. We want to make something completely clean and personal — a restaurant and a kitchen that doesn’t hide behind anything.”

The fusion of Japanese and Italian food is meant to be a seductive surprise with every visit. “Every time we (re)visit the honest and simple Italian cuisine, we are overwhelmed by how little it takes to create an irresistible taste. At the same time, we are captivated by the elegance and constant balancing on a knife edge that we find in Japanese cuisine. We are thrilled by the exotic ingredients and the many unexpected flavors,” the website explains. “When our chefs pull on the apron, they are forced to experiment in the meeting between the two approaches. Thus, the weekly menu at Restaurant Levi is the result of a constant search and curiosity that characterizes our kitchen.”

The company’s Instagram feed highlights pictures of dishes like pasta covered in crispy octopus, lamb, and artichoke in a salty Japanese broth, and fine cuts of wagyu beef over risotto.

The bistro’s interior design was crafted by restaurant partner Johannes Torpe with an eye towards the warmth and comfort of old Italy and the sophistication of Japan. The color scheme of jade green and natural wood is soothing and sumptuous. The custom banquettes curve around the restaurant, flanked by window views of the bicycle-lined avenue of inner-city Copenhagen. The green-swirled marble countertops and the terrazzo floors bring in extra Italian flair. Public reception has also been overwhelmingly positive. Since its opening in March, Restaurant Levi has boasted fully booked weekends.

“The future of the Danish gastronomic scene is bright. Copenhagen is — rightly so — among the most hyped food cities in the world, and so it will continue,” adds Jesper Boelskift. “In the run-up to the coronavirus pandemic, we [were] once again seeing a resurgence of new places and new concepts. The lockdown was tough, but it also gave room for new thoughts and ideas. We also felt that it gave time and space for the development of our restaurant, which is why today we stand here with Levi.”

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The entrance is purposefully mysterious, finished in black steel with no apparent function. The intention is to raise expectations for the interior space, taking inspiration from the entrances of traditional Japanese shrines. Carving the new retail space right into the thick concrete walls and leaving their unfinished contours in place, the architects create the sense of penetrating into a deep, dark cave or bunker. Seeing all the watches lined up on their pristine white and steel shelving, one wonders if they’ll find the Batmobile around the next corner.

The architects intentionally chose materials that would be in conflict with the rough nature of the concrete to create a visual tension. Shallow beds of gravel make the transition between the original surfaces and the new tile flooring. Most fascinating of all, perhaps, is the choice to subtly highlight the brokenness of the concrete in some areas with gold powder in the spirit of “kintsugi,” the Japanese art of repairing broken vessels with gold to highlight the beauty of their imperfections.

“By laying gravel between these spaces, we express a sense of calmness and beauty reminiscent of a Japanese garden,” say the architects. “The floor was finished by old lumber and floated in the space as a stage for encountering rare products. The stainless steel showcase makes a sensation of an otherworldly bank vault and the rarity of the product stand out more. The display stand of the watch uses natural stone as it is, and by contrasting it with the natural beauty of the stone, it enhances the attractiveness of the artificial beauty of the wristwatch, which can be said to be the crystallization of advanced craftsmanship.”

The firm adds that “you can bring your favorite products to the negotiation booth and carefully examine them. The booth is a neutral space finished with white steel and plastic and surface emission from the ceiling makes [it so] you can concentrate on the detail of the product. The strong contrast of various materials makes each space stand out independently. And through those ‘space’ experiences, you can feel the connection with the concept of ‘time.’”

There’s a certain poetry to Kenta Nagai Studio’s approach to this project, especially given the history of Shinjuku City. Now known as Tokyo’s major commercial center, home to the busiest railway station in the world and most of the city’s skyscrapers, Shinjuku was almost 90 percent destroyed during the Tokyo air raids in 1945. Only its roads and rails remained, preserving its pre-war form for post-war reconstruction. In this sense, those roads and rails are almost like the gold lines of kintsugi passing through the city, knitting together old and new.

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“I was getting cooped up during quarantine and decided to create a habit that makes me want to look forward to getting up early in the morning,” said Tokyo-based toast mastermind Manami Sasaki in an interview with Elle Singapore.

“Toast is a very easy medium to use because you can put both fruits and vegetables on it. I wanted to explore the many possibilities within the framework of toast,” she adds.

What started as a lockdown time killer has morphed into an Instagram following of almost 50k, as well as magazine interviews, appearances on German news, and spots on Japanese reality TV shows.

Sasaki’s themes range from intricate abstract patterns to classical art. Her portrait of Frida Kahlo was hand-drawn using squid ink, while the elaborate floral headdress was crafted from radish, fried, pumpkin, yellow bell peppers, and sprigs of dill.

Her colorful American comic in the All True Romance style was fashioned from carrots, curry power, squid ink, cod rose, beads, and cabbage.

The face of American actress Marie Doro covers another piece. “She was… active in the early silent film era in the first half of the 19th century; her films were restricted, and the only photographs that can be seen are black-and-white,” Sasaki commented in an Instagram post. Her edible medium even allowed the painting to be more authentic, as she noted that “the funny thing about squid ink is that when grilled, it starts to look like an old photograph!”

In much of her work, however, Sasaki sticks to her roots, showcasing traditional Japanese artists and designers. Dozens of her bread slices are adorned with images from the ukiyo-e style, popular in the country from the 17th to 19th centuries, that featured female beauties in their kimonos, Japanese landscapes, and Kabuki actors. Sasaki’s edible paintings of these Edo-era images often utilize squid ink for the body outlines, whitebait for the pale faces, and red cabbage, sprouts, radishes, baby corn, cherry tomatoes, and bright-hued spices for the hair and clothing.

“I have always loved Japanese culture, and I travel to see the karesansui in Japanese gardens and frequently visit ukiyo-e exhibitions,” Sasaki says. “I want to express my own interpretation of the things I really like and the culture I love, and I want my overseas followers to know the appeal of Japan as well. I guess that’s why I make a lot of works with Japan as the theme.”

One piece of toast is a play on a zen garden, with a thick layer of sour cream scraped over with a fork to look like sand ripples flowing around macadamia nut “stones” and pinches of matcha powder “moss.”

Another slice is an homage to Kintsugi — the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with lacquer dust of gold, silver, or platinum. In another piece, Sasaki reveals one shard of delicately decorated red pottery, melded with larger white fragments using edible gold leaf as the glue.

These carb creations take her a few hours to make each morning, but no time at all to consume. “It takes less than a minute. I’m hungry and I finish eating quickly,” she laughs.

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“Kami is the Japanese word meaning ‘god,’ ‘divinity,’ or ‘spirit’; but it also means ‘paper,’” Shibata explains. “Kami reside within nature. They dwell in the sky, in the ground, [and] in the wind, as well as various objects such as old trees, big rocks, and manmade creations. Kami move freely beyond time, universe, and places, appearing during events, as well as in our houses and our bodies. These spirits also dwell in paper. In the religion of Shinto, white paper is considered as a sacred material.”

Shibata hopes to use the traditional method of Japanese paper cutting to draw attention to “the delicate relationship we as humans have with the environment.” Her interest in paper cutting started when she began to play with the needles, strings, and leftover fabrics in her mother’s quilt and patchwork atelier shop as a child. She moved to New York after high school and experimented with paper art and stained glass before enrolling in the Printmaking and Sculpture mixed media department at the National Academy School in New York. In 2015, she moved to Paris.

Shibata sees her paper art as a way to travel to strange worlds, and her travels to new countries have broadened her ideas about what those worlds can look like while reinforcing her appreciation for her Japanese identity. The landscapes she creates are often surreal, mysterious, and even ghostly, occasionally offering a glimpse of a shadowy figure within the forests and dense cityscapes. She’s fascinated by the way the layered cut-outs interact with each other, creating highlights and shadows that she sometimes enhances with strategic lighting.

Even her smallest works can consist of many sheets of paper and hundreds of hours of careful slicing. These pieces might be enclosed within a goblet, apothecary jar or vase, and illuminated with a single tiny bulb for an enchanting effect. But Shibata’s “paper worlds” are downright jaw-dropping when they’re at their largest, crafted as interactive experiences within art galleries. Currently, Shibata is working on an installation she calls “Inochino-uta, Poetry of Life,” a large-scale project consisting of over 100 pieces of paper suspended from the ceiling. It’s set to be exhibited later this year.

“I cut paper to express my thankfulness to the ‘Kami’ spirits for having been born in this life,” Shibata says. “Each cut, each page is a prayer. My process helps me to be quiet and clear my mind in meditation or prayer. I purify my soul through the act of cutting paper. By interacting with the ‘Kami’ spirit material, I can connect to this spirit world with our own.”

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The Ainu village of about 120 people consists of many artists and artisans, who still practice ancient techniques like hand-carving traditional motifs into wooden plates. To translate the project to ceramic, the artisans carved wood blocks that press the patterns into the plates before they’re fired. The result is a beautiful twist on “Arita ware,” the name for porcelain produced in Arita, which has a history of ceramics dating back to the early 1600s, when porcelain stone was discovered in the area. This porcelain became a well-known luxury product within Japan and around the world, where it was often called “Imari.”

The project was initiated by Akan Ainu Consuln, an organization founded in a small Ainu settlement. The Ainu are the indigenous people of Japan, who now mostly live on the northernmost island of Hokkaido. “We have an accent culture, born from a lifestyle of harmony with nature,” they explain. “Among traditional Ainu culture lives a rich tradition of crafts, including wood carving, textiles, embroidery, and more featuring unique patterns and designs. Akan Ainu Consuln works to disseminate Ainu culture and protect Ainu intellectual property related to Ainu performance arts, the Ainu language, Ainu cooking, and traditional Ainu designs.”

The group works directly with artists and creators in Ainu to facilitate collaborations with other creative traditions of Japan. In this case, it’s two potteries in Arita called Kyuemon and Yamaheigama. They hope to draw attention to the Akanko Ainu Kotan village and its unique culture, bringing in tourism revenue that can help keep its traditions alive.

“Since the pandemic hit, tourism to Akanko Ainu Kotan has dropped dramatically, especially among foreign tourists who aren’t allowed in the country right now,” says Akan Ainu Consuln. “This project serves as a chance to bring in some much-needed revenue to our artists, as well as deliver a piece of Ankanko Ainu Kotan to people who can’t visit in person right now.”

The plates include designs by five Ainu artisans: Fukiko Goukon, Erika Katsuya, Masaki Saito, Kiyosho Hikawa, and Hideharu Taira. “I came up with my designs while hoping that Ainu culture will become better known throughout the world,” says Goukon. “I made designs that incorporate traditional lucky Japanese patterns in order to reflect the collaboration with Arita ware, while still staying true to classic Ainu patterns.”

A Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign raised over $25,000 to bring the project to life, offering backers the choice between each artist’s collections as rewards. Once the campaign is fulfilled, the creators hope to offer the plates to the wider public. If you missed it, keep an eye on the page for future updates.

The post Ainu Meets Arita: Beautiful Plates Made in Japan with Designs by Indigenous Artists first appeared on Dornob.