Drawers for beautiful objects

To express the fineness of Japanese handiwork through furniture, we began by having another look at furniture-making in the good old days that bring back memories. We made a cabinet with many drawers by asking ourselves an essential question of how such furniture should look and how functional it should be. The detachable drawers are large enough to store A3-sized paper, shirts, books, and other large items. Without using sliding rails or other modern functional hardware, we limited ourselves to using analogue structures. Users can continue to enjoy the products for a long time by repairing them after several decades even when they are slightly broken. The analogue techniques can achieve such functionality. Although the functional hardware is convenient, there is a possibility of sudden functional problems at the end of a product’s lifespan, as with computers and automobiles. This is a paradoxical dilemma that is associated when striving for innovation.

We must keep our eyes on the essence of objects when designing furniture, so that we do not unfailingly confuse products that should be new with those that should be there. We thus designed the cabinet to have a simple structure without using functional hardware. We also employed old-fashioned joints even for the kumite of each drawer. We wanted to show the accumulation of detailed work as the basic modality of products. “We make things in a careful manner,” which is easy to say, but it requires substantial time, energy, and a sense of purpose to put our ideas into action. While beautiful products with excellent design are good, we can create products that have the spirit of careful craftsmanship, if we have the purpose of making products that people cherish with affection for many years.

This large cabinet has 40 large A3-sized drawers. It is up to the user how to use them. Users can freely store documents, collections, records, photographs, contract papers, albums, and other valuable items. It is our pleasure to create products while visualizing how our furniture will be used in daily life and work.