When visiting the workshop in Kofu, you can see a variety of metalworking tools lined up on the craftsmen's workbenches. While interacting with the craftsmen, it has become one of my pleasures to gaze at these tools. Hammers with handles carved to fit the hands of the craftsmen who use them, files that are used differently depending on their purpose and number... These tools, shaped by the craftsmen in pursuit of functionality, seem to possess a certain kind of beauty.
Coincidentally, in our new collection "Staple", we focused on one of the tools used by carpenters, the "Kasugai". It is a U-shaped nail driven in to join two pieces of wood together. This technique of fixing wood, brought from the Korean Peninsula, has been used domestically since the Kofun period. A tool that has been responsible for "joining together" since ancient times. This collection began by replacing the materials being joined from wood to natural stone and metal. The beauty of the tools used by craftsmen and our respect for their craftsmanship may have led us to encounter the "Kasugai".