Building a new tradition
Beginning with Nara Sarashi. Nara has been known from ancient times as a production center of thin woven cloth. The SHIRAYUKI FUKIN (tea towel) is a product perfected by Kakitani Sen-i, an ancient traditional shop that has been making mosquito netting for many years, not just by handing down the fabric techniques of their ancestors, but also by sensing the needs of the era in applying and developing techniques. This tea towel is also presented each year as a "sacred-bib" for the Great Buddha of Todaiji, a symbol not only Nara but of Japanese culture- -and of course the Great Buddha stands behind the towel's superb usability. For a showroom space in which to pass down to the world the sprit of craftsmanship of Kakitani Sen-i, we embodied the problems inherent in the processes of modern handicraft and the future possibilities of converting such problems into value, all the while protecting the fundamentals of architecture taught us by our ancestors, by means of such things as using wood scrap materials for the wall surfaces. As a designer, I feel I was able to propose modes of future communication between maker and end user and assist in building a new tradition.