Cultural connection: Mono Japan celebrates Eastern craft in Amsterdam
Last week, we discovered how special the design marriage between The Netherlands and Japan truly is. Taking place at Amsterdam's eclectic Lloyd Hotel – a location that is as Dutch and design as you can get – was the inaugural Mono Japan fair.
'I have never seen so many Japanese people together in one place in Amsterdam before,' one attendee exclaimed. A world away from lifeless exhibition halls, the fair was totally unique; we found true Japanese craft peeking its way out of bathtubs, propped up on beds and settled on sinks.
The Lloyd was a backdrop with true personality. Owner Suzanne Oxenaar would prefer not to call it a design hotel, having refurbished many of the pieces that existed in its previous life as an immigrant hotel. These included the up-cycled white wooden chairs in their restaurant; vintage works that have been given leather seats, or had their spines removed. Despite this, the hotel still houses striking products by a plethora of designers – including Studio Job, Scholten & Baijings and Joep van Lieshout – dotted around the narrow halls and boldly diverse rooms.
The fair showed many practices never displayed outside of Kyoto, Nagasaki or Tokyo before. Thus, the excitement about their craft was understandably heightened, though slightly lost in translation. The disciplines on show spanned design and fashion, to food and music, with interactive events such as kite making, knife sharpening and tea tasting taking place over all six floors of the Lloyd.
'Interest in Japanese handicraft in the Netherlands is remarkable' explains Japanese-born, Amsterdam-based Emiko Chujo, the fair's organiser. 'It stands in sharp contrast to the design scene here where progress, innovation, rationality and modern techniques such as 3D printing set the tone.’
An array of sculptural pieces stood out. Takarajima Senkou, who works from a plant dying factory, used natural Indian indigo to dye hanging stones for her ornamental mobile. Mixed with plated copper shapes, the organic stones are hollow for candles to be placed inside, changing the stone's hues while it moves. Over in the fifth floor loft space, Ryo Okamoto’s sculptures featured intriguing material uses. Inspired by the Japanese Edo period and Hawaiian lava, his fiery malachite form Believer was bathed in a celestial light.
Elsewhere, Tokyo-based Masayuki Kurokawa's refined cast iron tea pots stood strong next to shimmering gold plates inspired by Japanese painter Ogata Kōrin. Meanwhile, showing for the first time outside of Tokyo, sound system designers Taguchi Craftec Co presented ‘Little Bell’, speakers that create subtle sounds via a layered effect in the wood.
Brands with existing international attention also had a presence. Time & Style set their immaculate porcelain tableware and rustic furniture across two rooms; while the Netherlands-based Based on Roots showcased their playful florescent lunch boxes and charming coffee grinders by Takumi Shimamura.
'All of the participants of the fair will stay a full week in the hotel,’ Oxenaar explains. ‘That’s how you really get to know each other and learn each other's culture.’ It was certainly an enveloping experience; to be quite honest, we didn’t want to leave.
INFORMATION
For more information, visit Mono Japan’s website
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Sujata Burman is a writer and editor based in London, specialising in design and culture. She was Digital Design Editor at Wallpaper* before moving to her current role of Head of Content at London Design Festival and London Design Biennale where she is expanding the content offering of the showcases. Over the past decade, Sujata has written for global design and culture publications, and has been a speaker, moderator and judge for institutions and brands including RIBA, D&AD, Design Museum and Design Miami/. In 2019, she co-authored her first book, An Opinionated Guide to London Architecture, published by Hoxton Mini Press, which was driven by her aim to make the fields of design and architecture accessible to wider audiences.
-
Sharon Smith's Polaroids capture 1980s New York nightlife
IDEA Books has launched a new monograph of Smith’s photographs, titled Camera Girl and edited by former editor-in-chief of LIFE magazine, Bill Shapiro
By Zoe Whitfield Published
-
A multifaceted Beverly Hills house puts the beauty of potentiality in the frame
A Beverly Hills house in Trousdale, designed by Robin Donaldson, brings big ideas to the residential scale
By Ian Volner Published
-
The most whimsical hotel Christmas trees around the world
We round up the best hotel Christmas tree collaborations of the year, from an abstract take in Madrid to a heritage-rooted installation in Amsterdam
By Tianna Williams Published
-
The most whimsical hotel Christmas trees around the world
We round up the best hotel Christmas tree collaborations of the year, from an abstract take in Madrid to a heritage-rooted installation in Amsterdam
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Six brilliant bars for your 2025 celebrations, hot off the Wallpaper* travel desk
Wallpaper’s most-read bar reviews of the year can't be wrong: here’s inspiration for your festive and new year plans, from a swanky Las Vegas lounge to a minimalist London drinking den
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
This rehabilitated arthouse cinema in the Netherlands romanticises the silver screen
Visum Mundi is an eco-conscious, boutique cinema nestled in the heart of Wageningen, Netherlands
By Daven Wu Published
-
Wallpaper* checks in at Yoruya, a Japanese inn where less is always more
Yoruya, which transforms a 110-year-old former kimono merchant shopfront and residence in Kurashiki, is an exercise in graceful restraint and craft
By Joanna Kawecki Published
-
First look: Noma Kyoto returns and aims to ‘double-wow’ diners
Noma Kyoto opens on 8 October for a ten-week pop-up inside Ace Kyoto. Thomas Lykke, co-founder of OEO Studio, tells us of the interiors’ autumn-forest inspiration
By Danielle Demetriou Published
-
Kengo Kuma’s new Kyoto hotel is ‘a sanctuary of ethereal beauty’
A former ryokan inn, Banyan Tree Higashiyama Kyoto offers onsen rooms equipped with natural hot spring water, and a contemporary take on a Noh theatre
By Danielle Demetriou Published
-
A minimalist teahouse makes a serene addition to a Tadao Ando-designed Kyoto hotel
Ogata at The Shinmonzen is a contemporary reinterpretation of a Japanese teahouse that sells traditional blends, confectionery, crafts and fragrances
By Danielle Demetriou Published
-
Tour the new Four Seasons Osaka, where time stands still
Set within a 49-storey tower, Four Seasons Osaka takes the traditional ryokan experience to new heights
By Danielle Demetriou Published