In the winter of 2022, shortly after establishing my independent practice, I began visiting craft workshops across Japan to deepen my understanding of traditional crafts. During this time, I visited SatoKiyomatsuShoten in Kyoto to learn about urushi lacquer, where I encountered Koshiwata, cotton wadding left over from the urushi refinement process. To purify raw urushi, cotton is torn into fine strands and mixed into the lacquer, then spun in a centrifuge to extract the pure liquid. Having caught impurities within its fibers along the way, the cotton is left behind afterward, each fiber coated with a thin layer of lacquer.

 

Urushi is an exceptionally precious natural material, often described as being used "down to the last drop." Yet Koshiwata, coated with lacquer, is typically discarded as industrial waste. Confronted with this contradiction, I began to question whether this material could be reactivated and given a new role in another form.

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In the summer of the following year, I proposed the idea of creating furniture from Koshiwata, marking the beginning of this upcycled furniture series. Through the steady, repeated process of manually loosening the fibers and pressing them into custom-made molds, we entered into an ongoing dialogue with the material. Through continued trial and error, we gradually figured out its structural strength and unique expression.

 

Squeezed Furniture refers to the act of compressing the material into its mold, a defining gesture throughout the making process. The series presents new spatial possibilities for urushi, celebrating the beauty of collectible design grounded in material scarcity, care, and intentional making.

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Full gallery coming soon.

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