[Kaidan tansu(stairs chest)]
SIZE:W48×D64×H38(cm)
Sakai Mokko crafts folk furniture with traditional Japanese furniture-making skills. The beautiful grains of zelkova tree are coordinated from the top to bottom drawers. We are proud of our technique of coating in multiple layers by hand without unevenness. The drawers are made from paulownia having high moisture buffering effect and structured in dovetail joint method without using any nails at all. Our skills for chest making developed over 100 years include key locking “karakuri (mechanism)” and bottom “kakushi (secret pocket).”
- Question 1Please describe your company and what makes your furniture special.
- President Sakai
- Instead of making a lot, our priority is handcrafting high-quality furniture approved by our customers, piece by piece in a time-consuming process. Instead of outsourcing, we do everything ourselves from preparing timber to the final coating. We do our best to fulfill the customer needs even when they make special requests. Checking furniture made overseas, I am impressed by the high quality of Japan made furniture. As a furniture workshop in Okawa, we are making Japanese folk furniture with a wish to succeed and hand down the quality of “Japanese handcrafting” we can be proud of to the world.
- Question 2What was your honest thought when first asked to make “Cat Furniture”?
- President Sakai
- I never imagined such a project would be offered to us. Initially, I wondered how much we could contribute to it, but we had a desire to fulfill customers’ requests to the extent we can, so we decided to accept the offer. Being informed that the cat furniture project is an opportunity to demonstrate the expertise of Okawa to “meet any demand from any customer,” I felt that is similar to our philosophy. It is easy to decline from accepting the requests, but we think challenging new things will enrich our expertise, so we appreciate being given this opportunity.
- Question 3What are you committed to when making cat furniture?
- President Sakai
- It must have been difficult for our artisans to make the drawers for the cat furniture. Usually, the drawers are perfectly aligned with the chest when closed by scaling them finely. However, for the drawers of the cat furniture which is much smaller, scaling just a little can significantly change the size. Moreover, the depth of the drawers is deeper than the human furniture, so the adjustment needs to be done for the larger surface to ensure smooth opening and closing. It took long time as the work was different from usual, but we finished it precisely for our pride as a box-shaped furniture maker. Also, we installed a few trick designs featured in the human furniture such as “kagikarakuri (key locking mechanism)” which cannot be seen from the outside and “sokoita-karakuri (bottom plate mechanism)” having two plates at the bottom. Please have a look at them.
- Question 4What is your view of the future?
- President Sakai
- Nothing brings us more joy than to see our customers using our furniture for generations. We want to be a group of professionals who can be proud of building the furniture with our own hands for our various customers. Furniture builders are decreasing rapidly today, and we have fewer opportunities to demonstrate our skills. So, we want to make Okawa City as a town of furniture, of which people say, “we can go to Okawa and find a variety of fine furniture,” which attracts attention as an important venue where artisans can exhibit their work.
SAKAI MOKKO CO., LTD.
376 Sakemi, Okawa City, Fukuoka Prefecture
TEL: +81-944-87-5723
