I’ve studied Japanese for years in my life, yet, my on-and-off practice with it has gotten me not much further than just conducting casual conversations with those who speak the language. The first thing I had to learn was Hiragana, the basic set of characters to the language. It was pure memorization for me, until I landed on this video recently did I realize that the physical shape and the pronounciation of these Japanese characters actually stems from my mother tongue of Chinese. Only if I had knew earlier, the process of memorization would have been so much faster, and perhaps even more interesting.
The Chinese characters which have inspired for the construction of the Hiragana characters are implemented in Japanese writing as the form of Kanji. Kanji is indeed, a hybrid of both art and functionality. Whilst Kanji serves a linguistic purpose, it is also an artistic pictographic script.
Taking from such uniqueness, Nendo Studio by Oki Sato has created two tables strongly inspired by the graphic expression of Kanji. The Picto Straight Edge Table above and the Picto Shelf Side Table below are both made with white-painted iron, while the prior creates a table, and the latter, a handy shelf. Needless to highlight, they both display a harmonic balance between art and functionality, making them a versatile and great statement piece for any homes.
