MaruTomi I

Collection of Interior Goods by Italian Architects

 MaruTomi is located in Sabae City, Fukui Prefecture, the home of world-famous "shikki" (i.e. products of the Japanese traditional art called "urushi", which has a long history of more than 1400 years).
Properly made, the products - woodenware such as trays, boxes, bowls or pots - are to be repeatedly coated and polished, and the lacquer for coating must be a natural one, also called "urushi", which is the refined sap of an "urushi" tree (Rhus verniciflua). Because it is the art of the hands of skillful craftsmen, the finished products are fairly expensive. Recently new materials such as plastics and chemical lacquers have been introduced for the purpose of reducing the cost. However, those new products are nothing but imitations of tra ditional "shikki" finished with cheap materials.

We have been trying for a long time to develop original products to be appreciated all over the world, blending the material merits of plastics and chemical lacquers with the coating technique and the aesthetic sense brought up by the art of "urushi". Based on the developing concept "ORIGINAL DESIGN, HIGH QUALITY, REASONABLE PRICE AND LONG LIFE" we have completed interior goods such as tableware, flower vases and others designed by Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Men dini, Massimo Morozzi, Michele De Lucchi and Marco Zanini under the direction of Masanori Umeda as the design producer. They are "made of plastics with polyurethane coating" and nothing compares with the unique texture. In the 90's tasteless and odorless minimalism prevailed. MaruTomi's interior goods - a superb harmony of materials, techniques and designers' individualities - are signs of the arrival of" the new age of individuality". This is the very collection of interior goods for the 21st century.