CLOSING DOWN | 70% OFF SITEWIDE SALE ON NOW
CLOSING DOWN | 70% OFF SITEWIDE SALE ON NOW
Japan is vast with an endless offering of amazing food, makers, gardens, shrines, shops, markets, streetscapes, hotels, onsens, ryokans, seasons, scents, workshops, train trips etc.
Here is just a quick snippet of places I have loved or have on my list to visit BUT please if you have something you would like me to add, DM me @sibellacourt
Over my many visits to Japan, I have curated a collection of all things Japanese handmade.
The collection extends, but not limited to, indigo Boro textiles to not only textiles but wooden combs with long stems, paintbrushes made of feathers, carved seals with tiny round red ink pads, woven travelling sake cups, metal letterpress pieces, tea ceremony whisks, bone and Ebor game pieces, hand-thrown ceramic cups, bowls, calligraphy books, brooms & paint brushes, mini gardening tools, reed woven slippers, copper tulip shaped rain chains etc
My mother was very good at adding to this ever-growing collection of bits and pieces.
All these precious things fit into my nostalgia view of Japan with its firefly-lit paper lanterned streets with women wearing
intricate seasonal kimonos walking in wooden shoes with the soundscape of them n cobblestone streets, their hair caught up kingfisher feather hairpins, & with me jotting down my observations with handmade ink and a paintbrush with a long bamboo handle.
Everything in Japan has a place to go and something to go in; envelopes, boxes, containers, cloth, chests, drawers, and bags of all sizes.
Dr Seuss trees sit outside wooden houses with dragon-scale roof tiles.
Spiderwebs covered in morning mountain dew build on trees hanging over the river.
I included many of my photographs of Japan in my first book, Etcetera (which was published in Japanese) as well as a chapter of Nomad | Bring your Travels Home & my 6th book, Imaginarium | A Compendium of Inspiration
& naturally, its endless inspiration has run deeply into the designs of my Hardware & Homewares.
LOST JAPAN | Last glimpse of beautiful Japan by Alex Kerr
OLD KYOTO | A guide to traditional shops, restaurants & inns by Diane Durston
IN PRAISE OF SHADOWS by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
VIEWS FROM JAPAN by Ben Richards @benrich_
STAY
Aman Tokyo
Park Hyatt
Muji Hotel
Bed & Book Hostel
SHOP
Tsutaya Books Daikan-yama
Good Design Store
Pigment & book into a workshop before you go, they offer in English
Itoya for stationary & crafts
Tokyo Hands for crafts, hardware, art supplies
Mad et Len
EXPLORE
21Design21
STAY
The Ace
Kyoto Machiya Inns for traditional houses to rent (make sure to ask for a bike to be at the house
SHOP
Poj Studios &book into a workshop before you go!
Kaikado for handmade canisters
Saiun-do art supplies with amazing pigments
Aritsugu knife & cooking utensil maker in Nishiki Market
Naito Shoten master broom makers since 1818
Aizen Kobo for indigo thread in traditional home
Ichizawa Hanpu canvas bag & bucket maker
For more amazing makers read Old Kyoto (see above)
EAT
Stardust, Kana
EXPLORE
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
The Sun Garden at the Kahitsukan Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art
Nishiki Market
STAY
Benesse Art House on Noashima Art Island in Seto Inland sea, Noashima
Noji Onsen Hotel, senju no Yu, Fukushima
LOG Onomichi is a boutique hotel by studio mumbai principal Bijoy Jain, Hiroshima
SHOP
Analogue Life, Nagoya
T.S.L Kurashiki is Superior Labor’s direct to customer store, Okayama
Truck furniture & cafe, Osaka
EXPLORE
Sagawa Art Museum Designed by Osaka-based architecture firm Takenaka, Moriyama
Isamu Noguchi Art Museum located between historic Yashima and Mount Gokenzan in Kagawa prefecture, on the island of Shikoku, Japan (Note: If you are visiting Noashima you could do this also)
Takenaka Carpentry Tools museum, Kobe
Enoura Observatory | Odawara Art Foundation designed by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Odawara
Oya History Museum, a former quarry with a network of monumental underground chambers, Utsunomiya
The overland Track in Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain is one of the most beautifully scenic, nature-immersing hikes you can possibly do. It will reset you into the rhythm and awe of nature. I went in late April when the Tanglefoot Fagus, an endemic deciduous beech endemic to the Tassie highlands leaves were turning and littered the track like orange & yellow snowflakes.
Bushwalking is one of the best ways to immerse yourself within nature to witness the changing flora & fauna, especially as the seasons change from Summer to Winter here in the southern hemisphere.
Our captain, Sibella Court, is an avid explorer & seasoned globetrotter. With bushwalking being one of her favourite pastimes. Hence why, at The Society inc. We have an excellent range of bushwalking essentials - Keychains, caps & more to make your journey all the more enjoyable.
Create an account to open the door into the imaginairium and a world of possibility.
We are a design studio & retail experience captained by Sibella Court. Step inside the imaginarium, delve into Sibella’s world and explore our hardware & home goods.
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