Pigment Store, Tokyo

Simply Perfect

Japanese design has a way of distilling the essence of simple objects to their purest forms, in so doing creating works of great refinement and grace. A good example is the new Pigment store in Tokyo, which specialises in artists' supplies, especially pigments for Japanese paintings.

The store was designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, whose characteristic style is very much evident in the restrained and considered interior. The light wood floor and ceiling made of wavy wooden slats provides a neutral backdrop with the 4,200 pigments in vials lined up on shelves along an entire all providing the visual excitement. The display of brushes of all shapes and sizes on a dark wall shows how simple forms can be elevated to real beauty. A true celebration, or even meditation, of the elegance of traditional Japanese art.