DESIGN
Kokontozai: KASHIYUKA’s Shop of Japanese Arts and Crafts — Edo Bamboo Blind
『カーサ ブルータス』2025年4月号より
| Design | KASHIYUKA’s Shop of Japanese Arts and Crafts | photo_Keisuke Fukamizu hair & make-up_Masako Osuga editor_Masae Wako translation_ Mika Yoshida & David G. Imber
Searching all of Japan for handcrafted items that express its heart and soul, our proprietor, KASHIYUKA, presents things that bring a bit of luxury to everyday life. Her journey took her to Taito ward in Tokyo where she encountered, in a studio filled with the gentlest light, Edo sudare, a traditionally crafted woven bamboo blind.
With Mr. Tanaka Kōtarō, certified crafter of Edo bamboo blinds and fifth-generation head of the Tanaka Seirenjo workshop. Apart from indoor and outdoor blinds they also apply sudare crafting to custom items like folding room dividers and even makisu, the small bamboo mats used for making sushi rolls. “I’ve always yearned to live in a place with these bamboo blinds,” admits our shopkeeper KASHIYUKA.
Tanaka Seirenjo studio sits in Tokyo’s fabled shitamachi downtown district, in the Senzoku neighborhood of Taito ward. Just inside the glass door hangs a blind made of bamboo, a sudare. The street scene outside passes faintly through it along with the natural light. One can’t help but gaze at its soft, delicate presence.
“Unlike the more extravagantly beautiful Kyosudare of Kyoto, Edosudare doesn’t emphasize decoration as much as create a simple and refined atmosphere,” says Mr. Tanaka Kōtarō, master of Tokyo’s traditional craft, citing the city’s ancient name of Edo. He executes every step of the process himself, from making the strips of bamboo and other materials to hand weaving them into their final form.
“Unlike the more extravagantly beautiful Kyosudare of Kyoto, Edosudare doesn’t emphasize decoration as much as create a simple and refined atmosphere,” says Mr. Tanaka Kōtarō, master of Tokyo’s traditional craft, citing the city’s ancient name of Edo. He executes every step of the process himself, from making the strips of bamboo and other materials to hand weaving them into their final form.
Purchase No. 83【Edo Bamboo Blind】Handcrafted in the Edo style, it eases the cool breeze in gently.
The imperial court, in olden times, used sudare both to shade the sun’s light and to divide open spaces. Samurai residences picked up on this in the Edo era [1603–1868], and eventually their use spread to the general population. Amid the particularly congested cityscape of old Edo, sudare were very effective in obscuring the view in from the street.
Loading...
Loading...
