A quiet studio carrying fire and craft into the future.
代表作｜卓上灯炉について
Masterpiece｜About the Tabletop Tōro
Do you know this?
The material that has supported the foundations of food,
agriculture, and water in Hokkaido from the pioneering era to the present day.
That material—ceramic pipes—
can be traced back 4,000 years in human history,
one of the oldest forms of water infrastructure ever created.
In the city-states of Mesopotamia they served as drainage channels.
In the Roman Empire,
as the terminal components of aqueduct systems.
In ancient China, as essential tools for agricultural water management. Across civilizations,
these fired‑clay pipes formed the hidden backbone of daily life.
Ceramic pipes were a material that shaped the roots of civilization.
Hokkaido was no exception.
During the pioneering era,
they carried out the unseen work of the land: subsurface drainage for farmland,
the development of pasturelands, urban sewage systems,
and industrial wastewater channels.
It was countless ceramic pipes laid beneath the ground that supported the growth of Hokkaido’s food, agriculture, and cities.
Yet unlike the soft stone warehouses or brick buildings that still stand today, their role left no visible trace.
Rarely recorded in documents,
remembered by almost no one,
they remained quietly buried beneath our feet
— a forgotten material that sustained everyday life.
It is this forgotten material that has been revived as a tool for fire in the present day: the Tabletop Tōro.
Harnessing the inherent heat resistance,
thermal mass, and breathability of ceramic pipes,
reconstructed through techniques of earthwork and pottery,
and reconnected to Hokkaido’s culture of fire—
The Hearth Vessel is a cultural apparatus that weaves together
four millennia of humanity’s material history of water and earth,
a century and a half of Hokkaido’s memories of soil, water, and cultivation,
and the authentic DNA of the traditional Japanese kamado that shaped our food culture.
Uniting these lineages into one, it is re‑imagined for the modern table as a contemporary vessel of fire.
あなたは知っていますか。
北海道の開拓期から今日まで、
食と農と水の基盤を支え続けてきた素材を。
その素材──陶管（とうかん）は、
実は4000年前の人類史にさかのぼる、
最古級の“水のインフラ”です。
メソポタミアの都市国家では排水路として、
ローマ帝国ではアクアダクトの末端として、
中国では農地の水管理として、
文明の発展を支えてきた“焼き物の管”。
陶管は、文明の根をつくる素材でした。
北海道でも同じです。
開拓期の農地の暗渠排水、
牧草地の整備、
都市の下水、
工場の排水路
食と農と街の成長を支えたのは、 地中に敷かれた無数の陶管でした。
しかしその役割は、 軟石の倉庫や煉瓦建築のように 目に見える形で残ることはありませんでした。
文献にもほとんど記録されず、 誰の記憶にも残らず、
ただ静かに地中に埋もれたまま、
北海道の暮らしを支え続けてきた素材。
その“忘れられた素材”を、 火の道具として現代に蘇らせたのが
卓上灯炉 です。
陶管が本来持つ耐火性・蓄熱性・通気性。
土と焼き物の技法を掛け合わせた再構築。
そして、北海道の火の文化への接続。
灯炉は、
- 人類史4000年にわたる“水と土の素材史”。
- 北海道開拓150年が刻んだ“土と水と農の記憶”。
- 日本の食文化を支えてきた“竈の正統DNA”。
その三つをひとつに束ね、
現代の卓上に“火の器”として再構築した文化装置です。