Maison Homura · Fukuoka

Made by hand in Japan, and the stories they carry.

Lucky cats, tea bowls and tanuki from Japan's old kiln towns, and vintage pieces found one at a time. Chosen in Fukuoka.

Latest film · 0:56Call someone this in Japan. It's an insult.Watch it, then see the pieces

Travel through time14,000 years, eleven ages Travel across JapanSix regions, each with its own craft

Gifts for Christmas

Chosen in Fukuoka, packed and sent from Japan.

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Daruma, tigers, nodding cows and festival masks — hollow, light, and made to be given.

一

Paper

Sold without eyes. Knocked over on purpose. Carried back at the turn of the year to be burned, and bought again.

4 pieces on these shelvesOpen the cabinet

Tea bowls, tanuki, beckoning cats and teapots — seven kilns that disagree.

二

Clay

One kiln lets the fire decide. Another painted in five colours for fifty years, then went quiet, and nobody knows why.

9 pieces on these shelvesOpen the cabinet

Kokeshi, carved bears, marquetry boxes and festival masks — one block, no joins.

三

Wood

Some of these boxes will not open until you find the moves, and the maker will not tell you what they are. The bears began as something farmers did while the fields were under snow.

10 pieces on these shelvesOpen the cabinet

Bronze Buddhas, lucky gods and iron kettles — poured in one town for four hundred years.

四

Metal

One town has poured metal since 1611. The colour on its bronze is not paint. And the inside of an iron kettle should never be scrubbed.

6 pieces on these shelvesOpen the cabinet

Furoshiki, obi, indigo kasuri and silk dolls — the pattern is planned in thread.

五

Cloth

Around 1800 a twelve-year-old girl unpicked a faded indigo garment to find where its white spots came from. A whole town still weaves what she found.

6 pieces on these shelvesOpen the cabinet

Two more ways through the house

Travel through time

Fourteen thousand years, and what each age left in this house.

Open the scroll

Travel across Japan

Six regions, and what each one has always made.

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奥の間 · The Vault

A second room, behind the gallery.

Pieces that are never listed, shown only to the collectors we invite.

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Before the shelf

Pieces are found one at a time, in Japan, and photographed before they are listed. Tell us what you are looking for, and we will write when something arrives that answers it.

We write when there is something to write about — some months twice, some months not at all.

Ask us to find one