Located in the mercantile sector of old Tokyo, Kappabashi is Japan’s cookware capital. Historically, the neighborhood’s shops catered to professional chefs and restaurateurs. More recently, home cooks have become their bread and butter. Since many of these family-owned businesses have been hawking their wares for generations, the shift in clientele has often required—while retaining a sense of history—rebranding as well as rebuilding. In his redesigns for the shops of Majimaya, a seller of confectionary tools founded in 1912, and Kama-Asa, a knife purveyor that started four years earlier, architect Masahiro Yoshida, director of the Tokyo-based KAMITOPEN, deftly balances the old with the new.
Specializing in small-scale retail and commercial works, Yoshida got his first Kappabashi commission some 10 years ago when he renovated the knife shop’s former store on the same site, which he refashioned with a browser-friendly open-floor plan and accessible carousel-style displays. After seeing his neighbor’s new interior, the head of Majimaya wanted an update of his own. This time the client didn’t just want a makeover. He wanted an entirely new building.
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