When choosing a piece of tableware, we often base our decision solely on the item itself. However, if you take a step back, you’ll find that the way it looks can change surprisingly depending on where it’s placed and what’s next to it.
A shop that evokes that very feeling—the “Rurbanism Tokyo Store”—has opened in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, Tokyo.
The store features a selection ranging from contemporary Japanese ceramics to vintage furniture, lighting, textiles, plants, and even music.
Ryuji Iwasaki, Atsushi Ogata, Shohei Ono, Teppei Ono, Yoshio Samukawa, Michikazu Sakai, Tomoko Sakai, Aki Tamiya, Fumihiro Tamura, Toru Hatta, Takashi Murakami, and Naotsugu Yoshida, as well as a selection of vintage furniture by Alvar Aalto, Hans J. Wegner, Pierre Chapo, and Charlotte Perriand.
The new and the old. The urban and the earthy. Polished designs and objects that bear the marks of craftsmanship.
When you deliberately place items that, at first glance, seem to belong to different contexts in the same space, you create an environment where boundaries based on era, nationality, or genre are dissolved, and each item naturally finds its place. Creating such spaces is the hallmark of “Ravanism Tokyo Store.”
The “Rurban” in the shop’s name, “Rurbanism,” is a portmanteau of “rural” and “urban.” At “Rurbanism Tokyo Store,” we seek to discover new connections between items that originated in different eras and places.
Rather than a place to buy things, it could be described as a place to think about how to relate to them.
In addition, the “Rurbanism Exhibition” is currently on display on the 5th floor of the Main Building at Isetan Shinjuku through Tuesday, October 27. Alongside “Utsuwa Shomi KAMAKURA,” the exhibition combines contemporary ceramics, vintage furniture, and lighting to create a unique atmosphere in a space distinct from the store itself. We hope you’ll stop by and check it out.
