Small objects for daily life. A kettle, a bookmark, a chair — made slowly, designed to outlast the person who bought it.
I design objects for the space between breakfast and a quiet afternoon. My studio is small on purpose. We take five to seven commissions a year and we do not hire — the work shrinks to fit the people doing it. I believe in slow iteration, one material at a time, and in the idea that a good object should be repairable by the person who owns it. We collaborate with potters in Shigaraki, paper makers in Echizen, and copper smiths in Nishijin. The best ideas come from them, not from us.
Two-person studio. Five to seven commissioned objects a year for Japanese retail partners, plus a small in-house line of paper goods and stoneware. Featured in the 2024 Designart Tokyo as one of ten studios to watch.
Tabletop division. Shipped four SKUs that remain in the global Muji catalog, including the stoneware tea caddy MJ-TKB5 and the washi desk set. Mentored two junior designers. Wrote the division's material-sourcing playbook.
Junior designer on furniture commissions for Maruni and Alias. Worked on the Roundish chair series. Assisted on three exhibitions including the Salone del Mobile 2017 presentation.
Year-long residency with a stoneware cooperative in Shigaraki. Learned wheel-throwing, slip-casting, and glaze chemistry from a fourth-generation master. Still returns twice a year for firings.
Hand-thrown for the original sample, then slip-cast for production. Small stoneware caddy designed to hold 80g of sencha. Still in the global Muji catalog after three years.
A low stool in solid teak co-designed with Channapatna carpenters outside Bangalore. Six hundred made. Shown at Triennale Milano 2024 as part of the India / Japan craft exchange.
Four-piece stationery set: letter tray, pen rest, card holder, bookmark. Commissioned by Postalco for their 20th anniversary. Sold out of the initial 400-unit run in three weeks.
A small hand-hammered copper kettle made with a 5th-generation copper smith in the Nishijin district. Thirty made for a single retail partner. Now the only object Tanaka Studio has sold out every year since 2022.