About BYAKKO | Japanese Craft, Curated in Japan

BYAKKO is a curated marketplace for Japanese craft, based in Tokyo. We source vintage furniture, kimono, and handmade objects directly in Japan and bring them to collectors and admirers around the world.

Every piece we carry has a history. A tansu chest that sat in a family home for generations. A kimono folded away and forgotten. A ceramic bowl made by hand in a workshop that few people outside the region have ever visited. These are not objects that were made to be discarded. They were made to last, and we believe they deserve to be found.

The person behind BYAKKO

BYAKKO was founded by Yaeno, who grew up surrounded by traditional Japanese interiors and craft. The idea for BYAKKO came from a moment of recognition: standing in front of a piece of vintage Japanese furniture and understanding, for the first time, why it was beautiful. Not despite its age, but because of it.

Having lived outside Japan, she saw how little of this craft was visible to the rest of the world. Not because people did not want it, but because there was no easy way to reach it. BYAKKO was built to change that.

What we look for

We are not looking for perfect objects. We are looking for honest ones. Pieces that carry the mark of the hands that made them, the time they have been through, and the care that went into them. In Japan, there is a long tradition of finding beauty in exactly these qualities. We curate with that tradition in mind.

Mottainai

There is a Japanese word, mottainai, that has no direct translation in English. It expresses a feeling of regret at waste, a sense that something of value should not be discarded thoughtlessly. It is the feeling you have when you see a beautiful piece of furniture left out for collection, or a kimono folded at the bottom of a box that no one has opened in years.

BYAKKO exists, in part, because of that feeling. Japan has an enormous amount of craft that is quietly disappearing, not because it has lost its value, but because it has lost its audience. We are trying to find that audience, one piece at a time.

Browse the collection at byakko.co.