photos courtesy Karimoku Research Center
Karimoku, the leading manufacturer of wooden furniture in Japan, recently opened a new exhibition and archival space in the Nishiazabu neighborhood of Tokyo. Driven by the company’s ethos of “high tech and high touch,” the Karimoku Research Center combines a mixture of technology and hands-on craftsmanship to survey, archive and innovate the many different ways people live.
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Randoseru are Japanese backpacks typically reserved for schoolchildren. Known for their quality and durability, randoseru are meant to last a lifetime. Leather craftsman Noriki Okada decided to create an even more sustainably-minded randoseru using scrap parts discarded from the production process. And for visual inspiration, he turned to the historic armor worn by samurai warriors.
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all photos courtesy ARKO
Another discovery from last month’s DesignArt Tokyo was ARKO, a Tokyo-based, self-described ‘straw artist’ who has been applying her creative approach to traditional craft since 2002.
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DesignArt Tokyo was back again this year from Oct. 18 to 27. The sprawling annual celebration sees Tokyo transform into a living, breathing museum with venues all across the city opening their doors to artists and craftspeople. This year’s theme, “Reframing,” challenged designers to address the commoditization of ideas that has resulted from our instant access to vast amounts of information.
From kumiko furniture and smoke sculptures to furniture for robots, below are five of our favorite things from the event.
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all photos by @husky_003 | used with permission
Almost 15 years ago, on a tiny plot of land in eastern Tokyo, a young architect named Keisuke Oka began to construct a tower of concrete entirely by hand. Located just a short walk from Mita Station, the Arimaston Building (蟻鱒鳶ル) is an intricate, organic structure whose uniqueness has earned it the nickname, the “Gaudi of Mita” after Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí.
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Happy Jimi Halloween to everyone who celebrates. It’s that wonderful time of year when our favorite Japanese festival, Jimi Halloween, is on full display. Mundane Halloween, as we coined it back in 2018, is when people dress up in costumes so mundane they have to be explained.
The tradition was started in 2014 by a group of adults at Daily Portal Z who kind of wanted to participate in the festivities of Halloween, but were too embarrassed to go all out in witch or zombie costumes. So instead of the flashy and flamboyant costumes they had been seeing gain popularity in Japan, they decided to dress up in mundane, everyday costumes.
You can comb through social media using the hashtag #地味ハロウィン but below we present to you some of our favorites from this year’s festivities. We’ve been covering this event since 2018 so you can also take a look at some past years too!
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The 2025 World Expo in Osaka, slated to take place in Osaka, is just 6 months away. Taking place from April 13 to October 13, 2025, the expo aims to be a participatory, experiential, solutions-oriented exposition, offering the world an opportunity to come together in one place to explore a new vision forward. And as details are beginning to leak out, here are a few things we’re excited about seeing at the host country’s Japan Pavilion.
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all photos by Toshiyuki Yano
Right across the Kanda River from Akihabara Station is 12 Kanda, a new co-working space dedicated to supporting small businesses and startups. A visually eye-catching building, it features multiple stories with different forms and functions stacked on each floor.
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An onigiri smushed at the bottom of your bag. Water splashing off a spoon. Burnt toast. Life is full of small disappointments. But helping us see the humor in it all is Makosun, a Japanese maker of weird plushies—their words, not ours—who renders all these small disappointments as handmade plushies.
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all photos by Takumi Ota courtesy Schemata Architects
For decades, Japanese manufacturers have worked in obscurity, churning out parts for the world’s biggest automakers and smartphone brands. And for the most part—largely owing to the confidential nature of their work—they have remained behind the curtain, neither seeking credit nor publicity for their work. One of those companies is Furukawa Manufacturing, which has been creating tailor-made production systems for automobile companies since 1940.
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Artist Hiro Sugiyama Recreates Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave’ With 750,000 Dahlias
Japanese Aquarium Drops 2026 Version of Flowchart Illustrating Their Penguin Relationships. This Year There’s an English Version.
Sou Fujimoto’s Meiji Park Brings a Three-Dimensional Landscape to Hakata Station
Kiyo Takeda: The Architect Making Tokyo Green Again
Discarded Tatami Mats are Reborn as Contemporary Furniture
