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The Modern Shikkai(悉皆)
Kyoto — Hudson Valley.
Bringing Japanese making into the life of this place.
We work with Japanese techniques, materials, and makers — not as commodities, but as works that carry presence through use and time. What matters is not seen, but lived with.
Someone describes a feeling — a texture, an atmosphere, a presence. We determine how to make it real — selecting the material, the craftsman, and the process, and carrying it through.
This is Shikkai — the one who holds the whole.
The Modern Shikkai.
悉皆
A client does not enter the workshop. They describe a feeling. We read it — and find which craftsman, which technique, which material can carry it. What follows is not linear. It is iterative. Sometimes precise, sometimes unexpected. The work moves between people — client, craftsman, material — and we carry it through, until it blossoms.
ひとつ残らずことごとく。— Every single thing, without exception.
This is Shikkai — the one who holds the whole. Not as reference — but as a way of working.
Selected collaborations and placements.
The same hands that craft for Aman Kyoto and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Sanya Kantarovsky × Taka Ishii Gallery — A watercolor transformed into tapestry · Woven by nail, thread by thread · Embroidered by Japan's last remaining atelier for this technique · Dyed with moss, lapis lazuli, and shell · Art Basel · 2023
E-E Home Amagansett — Capsule collection of kitchen linens · Plant-dyed and mud-washed by the hands that dye yarns for Oshima Tsumugi, known as the Queen of Kimono · 2022
Filiz Soyak — Hand-stitched textile art on kurimayu, a wild silk that can only be woven by hand · Each thread irregular, each tension felt by the weaver · No two pieces alike 2022
Isetan Shinjuku — Limited edition tea box in paulownia wood with mother-of-pearl and vintage foils · A box made to outlast what it holds · 2026
Morea Home & Kitchen — pillows · Plant-dyed with persimmon in Kyoto by the hands that dye and repair textiles for the Imperial Palace 2023
Ladies & Gentlemen Studio — Contemporary lighting wrapped in muga and kurimayu, two wild silks too irregular for anything but human hands · 2025
Calico Wallpaper — Hand-dyed linen shaped for a shared table · Where textile, color, and atmosphere became one dining experience · 2024
The same craftsmen. The same process.
What changes is the expression — not the standards.
Your kitchen linen, dyed by the hands that dye silk for Japan's imperial kimono houses. Your tea box, finished with the same foils that showed at Art Basel. The form changes. The rigor does not.
We do not adapt the work to fit the space. We shape the work so it belongs within it. Makers whose techniques have been shaped across generations — carried forward by the few who remain.
The craftsmen behind our work · Hikihaku technique · Victoria and Albert Museum · Permanent Collection
We do not adapt the work to fit the space. We shape the work so it belongs within it.
Not everything is decided in advance. Some of the most important qualities emerge through the process — in ways that cannot be planned.
This movement — between intention and emergence — is where the work becomes what it is.
Bespoke Works.
A designer with a vision. A home, a hotel, a store —
shaping a space.
An artist seeking the right craftsman.
A brand seeking a cultural bridge.
We shape the work so it belongs within it.
Commissions · Homes & interiors · Hospitality Artist collaborations · Market entry · Product development
