Handmade Japanese craft has always fascinated us, so we where thrilled to learn of an exhibition of Yoshiyuki Kato’s woodworks at Nagoya’s retail temple to contemporary craft, Analogue Life. Unlike his contemporaries who tend towards thinner, lightweight pieces with more subtle curvature, Kato is becoming known for his sturdy, geometric wood-works that recall a traditional carpentry practice.
Born and raised in Japan, Kato trained as a 'Miya Daiku', or shrine carpenter. The practice has been used in Japan in the construction of temples and other large wooden buildings for centuries. And Kato’s domestic-scale designs pay tribute to the Miya Daiku traditions.
Ian Orgias, the owner of Analogue Life and long-time Japanese craft enthusiast, first spotted Kato’s tableware last year and was determined on bringing him to his gallery. The new exhibition will showcase Kato’s tableware - plates, trays, bowls and spoons – as well as some very small serving tables. But it was Kato’s technique as much as the Miya Daiku references that excited Ian about his work.
'Many wood artists producing tableware do much of their work with a wheel or lathe,' he explains, 'but Kato doesn’t use a wheel at all. After cutting his wood, almost all the shaping of a piece is done by hand using small tools. He strives to keep the use of machinery to a minimum so that each item he makes is truly handmade.' Indeed, Kato’s tables even allow for construction sans nails and screws.
Kato’s domestic-scale designs pay tribute to the Miya Daiku traditions
Octagonal bowls by Yoshiyuki Kato
These nesting octagonal bowls, also known as hakaku fukuzara, were handcrafted from walnut wood
Based in Nagoya Japan, design store Analogue Life, has been specializing in Japanese craft pieces since it’s founding in 2009
Koshikake stools, by Yoshiyuki Kato
A sumikirizen table, used to serve tea, demonstrates Kato’s bond and screw free design ideology
ADDRESS
Analogue Life
E-3 Rapersiz Higashi Shirakabe
1-17-9 Yoshino, Higashi-Ku
Nagoya, 461-0027
-
This 100-year-old private members’ club in London feels young at heartThe Sloane Club unveils a stylish new rebrand and redesign courtesy of Russell Sage Studio
-
RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 winner is ‘a radical reimagining of later living’Appleby Blue Almshouse wins the RIBA Stirling Prize 2025, crowning the social housing complex for over-65s by Witherford Watson Mann Architects, the best building of the year
-
A24 just opened a restaurant in New York, and no one knows it existsHidden in the West Village, Wild Cherry pairs a moody, arthouse sensibility with a supper-style menu devised by the team behind Frenchette
-
Exploring tsu tsu mu: a new exhibition in Tokyo reframes the Japanese way of wrapping anything‘Tsu-tsu-mu’, on view until 13 October 2025 at Matsuya Ginza, reframes the popular Japanese concept of wrapping into a mindset for caring for others
-
Designart Tokyo transforms the city into a museum of creativityDesignart Tokyo presents global design highlights through a series of exhibitions involving global creative talent and traditional Japanese craft
-
Celebrating the beauty of Japanese carpentry toolsNow on show at New York's Japan Society, ‘When Practice Becomes Form: Carpentry Tools from Japan' presents an overview of the techniques at the heart of Japanese wooden craftsmanship
-
Designart Tokyo transforms the city into a living, multi-sensory museumThe third edition of the fair (18-27 October) showcases over 100 exhibitions across the Japanese capital
-
London designer Max Lamb takes a shine to the Japanese art of lacquerware -
How Tokyo’s creative universe is evolving at Designart’s second edition -
In the frame: standout designs from around the globe -
Nendo’s minimalist homeware hacks connect human and object at Salone del Mobile
