Japan Brand Pop Up Shop: Hitoma Portable Tea Room
by Ariston Anderson
The Japan Brand Pop Up Shop, currently at NYC's Felissimo through 30 May 2009, is full of the latest fashion accessories, kitchen props and home décor straight from Japan, but what really caught our eye was Hitoma—an enormous portable tea room meant to easily turn any room into the perfect tea or meditation retreat.
The project's title, Hitoma, signifies a room used to promote a time and place of relaxation. Built from Kishu timber, a high-quality cedar from the city of Gobo and known for its extraordinary grain patterns and long life-span, the portable tea room is a soft, calming space reminiscent of the forest from which it came. Sliding doors covered in bamboo paper display calligraphy or a woodblock print while tatami mats cover the floor, each holding a pattern that signifies an animal or a plant, much like a family crest.
The tea room was developed by the Gobo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and retails for $18,000.
Japan Brand Pop Up Shop
Through 30 May 2009
Felissimo Design House
10 West 56th Street
New York, NY 10019 map
tel. +1 212 956 4438
