KISUKI Development Story

The first thing that comes to mind when one hears the word Sukiya is the Sen no Rikyu tea ceremony tradition. In a tea ceremony house there is a variety of shapes and styles, such as the Juraku clay wall, the stepping-stones of the surrounding garden and the Mizuya (kitchen).

However, the more we analyze words such as Sukiya, Sukiya-style, Sukiya-structure, we can see that the image of word is actually rather vague in its reference. The word Suki itself has many connotations and the dictionary refers to the word suki (like/ prefer/ favourite) or the gathering of a group of people. The word suki can also mean to be deeply inclined towards the art of traditional beauty. There is a very long Suki tradition in Japan, passed down through the centuries, such as vocal Suki (Kabuki), flower Suki (Kado – flower arrangement), tea Suki (tea ceremony, wabi and sabi tea), written suki (Shodo – calligraphy) etc.

Written Suki is based on two writing techniques – one style of calligraphy called Shingyoso, where the form of writing changes from printed style (kaisho) to cursive style (gyosho) and finally to very cursive style called grass hand style(gyosho), leaving only its basic structure (shin). The other technique is drawing out the subtractions to simplify and to establish harmony.

This way of thinking helps us understand that the art of suki is both liberal and diverse, positively pursuing the artistic senses enjoyed in hobbies with casualness and humour, as well as natural beauty and art of traditional beauty.

At SHIRAKAWA Ltd., we decided to develop a world of wooden Suki as the 4th challenge in our Japanese modern series. Using the roof, alcoves, verandas, gardens, hedges and distant mountains within the landscape as the motif we developed the Suki theme. For the back part of the chairs we applied designs from the Hida traditional senmoto lattice in mountain-shaped style, which is designed to invoke the image of the far mountain ranges of the Hida landscape.

For the cupboard the technique of Hida free-structure expertise to create hidden storage was applied. To appreciate such sophisticated beauty we also made folding style stairs and protruding shelf boards. Thus, KISUKI, an original SHIRAKAWA interior design for the modern lifestyle, was established.

The colour,FK, of the wooden part is fukiiro, the colour of iroribata(traditional Japanese fire place) and daikokubashira(the central piller of a house), seen on the architecture in famous old houses like the Kusakabe folk house or the Kichijima family house. This dark brown colour appears only after decades of polishing the wood. The colour is developed from Yani oil, naturally produced by the wood, and the accumulation of smoke and ash, appearing as a dark brown tint, fukiiro, when the wood is polished for cleaning. For this exhibition we brought products with a natural oil finish.

We finally decided upon 100% organic cotton calico for the fabric materials, striving to portray beauty and nature in pursuit of the arts through the Japanese traditional suki spirit. This combination of traditional borders and natural materials make a perfect match for our KISUKI development concept. The fabric material consists of 2 colours named sukishima aisumi and sukishima usukou after the suki borderline and its colour. Aisumi is an indigo colour, almost as black as charcoal, while usukou is yellowish brown colour dyed with a very popular scent in the Heian era.