News｜Yodoyabashi MIHONCHO

Wakabayashi is a long-established manufacturer of Buddhist altars and fittings located in Kyoto. Buddhist altars are traditionally made of wood, but Wakabayashi had been exploring the possibilities for using materials other than wood, an enterprise that led it to collaborate with Takeo for its expertise as a specialist paper merchant. Paper Altar was born out of a joint project to develop new forms for prayer using paper as the main material.

 

With Haruka Misawa and Koichiro Oniki serving as designers, we exhibited prototypes at Aoyama MIHONCHO in Tokyo in September 2023, and we will be unveiling four products at Yodoyabashi MIHONCHO that have been selected for commercial release.

 

We hope you come to view these new concepts.

 

Paper Altar items to be released commercially

Item	Design	Price (tax included)	Paper
・white cube	Haruka Misawa	121,000 yen	OK AC CARD
・Tsumigu	Haruka Misawa	187,000 yen	GA FILE
・KAI	Koichiro Oniki	148,500 yen *small type	HIGH PIKA E2F
・TOH	Koichiro Oniki	110,000 yen	NT RASHA

• This exhibition is part of Osaka Art & Design 2024 (link to external site).

• Paper Altar items will be sold at Wakabayashi Butsugu Mfg’s Kyoto main store and through its online store. (They are not on sale at Yodoyabashi MIHONCHO.)

 

 

Wakabayashi Butsugu Mfg Co., Ltd.

A manufacturer of Buddhist altars and fittings founded in Kyoto in 1830, Wakabayashi works with many craftsmen to produce and install Buddhist fittings for temple interiors and Buddhist altars for households. More recently, it has been leveraging its rich store of skills to repair national treasures, important cultural properties, and other historical buildings throughout Japan. Based on its twin missions of nurturing, improving, and passing craftsmanship skills on to the next generation, and of preserving the spirit and culture embodied in the practice of bringing hands together in prayer, Wakabayashi is also now pursuing new projects that make use of the skills of craftsmen of Buddhist fittings, and is developing original brands tailored to lifestyle. www.wakabayashi.co.jp

 

Haruka Misawa (Nippon Design Center, Inc.)

Designer. Born in Gunma Prefecture in 1982, Misawa is director of the Misawa Design Institute, Nippon Design Center, and an associate professor at Musashino Art University. She joined Hara Design Institute at Nippon Design Center after graduating from the Department of Industrial, Interior and Craft Design, Musashino Art University and working at a furniture maker and design office. She launched Misawa Design Institute in 2014. She uses an experimental approach, attempting to observe the principles behind things and visualize the unknown possibilities to be found there. misawa.ndc.co.jp

 

Koichiro Oniki (Oniki Design Studio Co., Ltd.)

Architect/Designer. Born in Tokyo in 1977, Oniki studied architecture at Waseda University after spending his childhood in England. On graduating, he joined for Nikken Sekkei, an architectural, planning and engineering firm. He later moved to design studio nendo Co., Ltd. and worked for ten years as chief director on spatial design projects around the world. He established Oniki Design Studio in 2015. He is active in various fields, focusing on architecture, interior design, and exhibition space design. 

First-class registered architect. oniki-design-studio.com

 

Planning

Wakabayashi Butsugu Mfg Co., Ltd. Takeo Co. Ltd. Business Development Division 

 

Production

Yusuke Makita (Construct LLC)

 

Art direction

Yoshiki Uchida, Takuya Wada (cosmos Inc.)

 

Production cooperation

Ace Package Co., Ltd., kobayashi-dansai, Ltd., Sarutoru Corporation, Shoei Inc., Taiseishiki Seisakusho Co., Ltd., Choetsu Kaken Co., Ltd., Tohoku Shigyosha Co., Ltd., Newell Goshi Co., Ltd.,  Misuzudo Co., Ltd., Rokka Co., Ltd.