Each cabinet is hand-shaped with patience, honoring the natural grain, the small marks, the silence between cuts. We craft furniture meant to age slowly — beautifully.
Four disciplines passed through generations. Every joint, every surface — touched by the maker. Nothing rushed. Nothing forced.
Bespoke pieces drawn to fit your home and your rituals. We begin with conversation, end with a quiet, lasting object.
Centuries-old wood joints that need no glue, no screw. Connection through geometry and grain alone.
Single planks, suspended in stillness. The air around them as important as the wood itself — quiet displays for quiet objects.
Honoring time. We repair antique chests and tansu — never erasing the marks of life, only stabilizing what remains.
A selection of recent commissions. Each piece is one of one — never repeated, always remembered.
Sumi & Kiri began in 1968 in a small Kyoto workshop where Master Hayato Tanaka shaped his first chest from a single piece of paulownia. He believed wood should be allowed to speak — and that the maker's job was to listen.
His grandson, Kenji, leads our atelier today — alongside seven craftsmen, three apprentices, and a quiet workshop dog named Inu. We refuse no commission for being too small; we refuse none for being too detailed. We work as fast as the wood allows.
We accept a small number of commissions each season. Tell us about your space and what you wish to bring into it. We will respond by handwritten letter or quiet email.
14-3 Kiyomizu Lane, Higashiyama, Kyoto
kenji@sumi-kiri.jp
+81 75 555 0168
Tuesday — Saturday · 10:00 — 17:00