Studio EYES is located in Aizu-wakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture, one of Japan’s well known regional centers of traditional lacquer ware. This modern studio was established by the husband and wife team, Asao and Rie Sakamoto. Rie is the third generation of a family that produced the lacquer that was widely used by lacquer ware craftsmen throughout Japan. In the past thirty years, together Rie and Asao Sakamoto have created many different kinds of lacquered objects that skillfully combine the unique qualities of traditional lacquer with beautiful and unusual new forms.

Like his creative wife, Asao Sakamoto has long been committed to developing new materials and techniques in a tradition previously dominated by conventional colorations and functional forms. His creative imagination and his patient experiments have resulted in a new palette of colors that were previously believed impossible to produce in lacquer. His experiments have led to collaborations with large international industrial companies such as Panasonic, Nissan, Sony, Japan Airlines, Nikon and Toshiba for whom he has created beautiful, limited editions of various objects employing his original lacquers. The following link illustrates a selection of some of these collaborative efforts, including lacquered laptop computers, cameras, and automobile dashboards

http://www.eyes-japan.co.jp/html/eyes/products12.html

For his successful efforts in conceptualizing and modernizing innovative uses of this traditional Japanese material, in 2005 Asao Sakamoto was recognized by Japanese Government when he received the Creative Award from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

In addition to Sakamoto’s innovative work with lacquer, his interest in other natural materials and modern designs have also earned him widespread recognition. A portable, and easily assembled, tea house is among Asao Sakamoto’s latest creations, and in 2008 it was awarded the Gold Medal Good Design Award by The Japan Industrial Design Promotion Agency. All of the components of the house are packed in ten flat parcels, and the house can be assembled by only two people in two or three hours. Unlike materials employed in other easy-to-do projects, Sakamoto’s tea house is made of solid Alaskan cypress, and the interior tatami mats are skillfully woven from Japanese washi kyori, strands of tightly twisted Japanese paper.

The accompanying photographs illustrate the four basic steps in the assembly of the entire tea house, in which no nails are used. The four walls of the house are easily assembled by placing the two-fold shoji screens on the lower rails of the frame, then placing the corresponding upper rails at the top of the screens. After the ceiling beams are installed on the top frame, the ceiling is placed on the beams. The hinges of the screens forming the corners of the walls are covered with full-length strips of cypress. Discreet interior lighting is housed in the ceiling of the house. The door is fitted into a sliding track.

The durable packaging is designed to contain all components of the tea house for storage and easy portability.

This ready-to-assemble tea house is ideal for the people who are looking for a small tea house, meditation room, or a unique sense of Japanese space in their home that requires no renovations.