FIRST STEPS IN JAPAN

When I’m asked what made me love Japan, I think back to a few episodes from my childhood. The Japanese restaurant my mother had set up in the 90s, which wasn’t a success because at the time nobody ate raw fish in France. I also remember a slide show of a National Geographic docu- mentary about Japan that my grandmother took me to see with her, a Japanese film festival in my hometown of Rennes, or the obi belt and sumi ink my mother brought me from Kyoto when she went there to promote the family hotel and restaurant.

All this had never triggered any particular love for Japan, but life continued to give me links with this country, particularly when I met the father of a very dear friend of mine, when we were stu- dents at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. He was Japanese and had spent his entire career working for Hermès, creating the company’s Japanese subsidiary. When he decided to leave the French company to put his expertise at the service of Japanese craftsmen, Mineaki Saito needed a designer for a first project on Kyoto textiles and suggested I accompany him. I didn’t hesitate and went to Japan to work on my first project in Kyoto and KyoTango. 6 months after, I launched my own design studio after working several years as a designer at the interior textile company, Pierre Frey in Paris.

During my first projects in Japan, I discovered a deep source of inspiration in the rich and complex world of Japanese craftsmanship. This love was confirmed as I travelled back and forth to Kyoto for 3 years, almost 4 times a year, to work with the artisans. After 3 years, with the desire to leave Paris, the idea of moving to Japan germinated in my head thanks to my friend Ayako and I set off to settle and open a design studio in Kyoto in 2019, 5 years ago now.

IN CHARLOTTE PERRIAND ‘S FOOTSTEPS

Like many creative people, Japan’s rich cultural and artistic heritage quickly fascinated me.

Its mysterious beauty, minimalist style, attention to detail, importance of gesture and respect for materials have influenced many artists and designers, such as Charlotte Perriand in France in the 40s. When I discovered that she had traveled and worked in Japan, I became even more inte- rested in her work, and particularly in what she had done with the craftsmen of Yamagata. This pioneer of modern design spent a significant amount of time in Japan working with craftsmen, integrating her system of thought, her eye, her vision with traditional Japanese techniques.

This resonated deeply with me. Her work shows that by bringing together tradition and moder- nity, Western and Eastern vision, beauty and utility, we can create new aesthetics, meaningful artifacts, sustainable and relevant to our modern lives. It is this idea that has inspired my own path. As a French designer, artist and creative director, when I moved to Japan, with naivety but also humility and passion, I thought I could bring a fresh perspective, a point of view that blends European sensibilities with Japanese traditions, to breathe new life into this age-old craft.

4 years ago, during COVID, I undertook a personal trip to northern Japan to meet Masanori, a rice straw weaver and Yamabushi monk I had met a few months before in Tokyo at a craft fair. His life in the mountains consisted of picking sansai (wild mountain vegetables) and weaving sandals from rice straw and bearskin. Masanori took me to places deeply connected to Japan’s craft he- ritage, and especially to the small Snow Museum in Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture, which was showing the results of Perriand’s collaborations with local artisans.

This experience crystallized my vision: it was possible and it made sense that a french person could bring something significant to the world of Japanese craftsmanship, by creating new pro- ducts rooted in the local territory, using traditional techniques and know-how but adding new ideas by looking at things from my European designer eye.