Yamaguchi Woodwork
Mr. Yamaguchi Loves wood as a being. He doesn’t want to sell them as merchandise and wishes to think about where the wood comes from - where it lived in the mountain, and how they would be loved by new owners in their everyday lives.
Yamaguchi built is house and workshop from wood about 25 years ago. For his only daughter, who had a severe allergy when she was little, he tried to make most things by himself from wood. In his workshop.
Yamaguchi makes tableware and furniture by order. He does everything himself - sourcing wood - buying whole logs, having the products he wants to make in mind, to designing and creating the products, publications, and sales activities when he goes to exhibitions with other creators and galleries.
He goes to the customer when he has an order, to see the place where his furniture will be sitting, to imagine the lifestyle of the user, before drawing up a design.
He tries to make minimum waste out of production. These chairs are made of the left-over parts of the timbers used to make furniture.
His son-in-law is learning to succeed his skills. His daughter helps with packing, PR and sales of his works. His wife is a junior-high school teacher.
In 2019, he built and opened a new shop and his daughter’s family house in the neighborhood. Now his work is exhibited there, and his daughter runs a cafe with everything baked by her, coffee roasted by her husband. The cafe-shop is very popular and connecting new young and hipster customer segments to Ukiha and his works.
