Junichi Arai is indisputably one of the world’s foremost innovators in fabric and textile design. He was born in the city of Kiryu, Japan, an important center for textile production that boasts over 1,000 years of traditional silk weaving. As the sixth generation of a mill-owning family, Arai learned historical Japanese weaving techniques for obis...

Japanese Landscape in the Snow I was delighted by this New Year’s card from Takeshi Ishiguro in Tokyo. On the front was an image of a snow covered landscape, with one of those crisp blue skies that only seem to visit Japan when it’s cold. The card came in an envelope, as the postage stamps...

Why? Water, the medium of life, has myriad manifestations. Furumai, meaning behavior or dance in Japanese, was an installation created for the Water exhibition at 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo in 2007. The project consisted of paper plates treated selectively with an invisible water-repellent coating. As visitors interacted with the plates, beads of water danced...