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Pieces for sitting, placing and living with. Each one is shaped by hand and finished in small numbers, between the world.
Three rounds, stacked. Use it as a seat, a side table or just as something to look at.
Ask about this pieceThe people behind the objects. Makers and designers we work with, each with their own hand and their own way of looking.
Toshiaki Umemoto
Takashi Kita
Matsumoto Kagu Kenkyusyo
Masaru Kawai
Toshiaki Umemoto (born 1977) is a woodworker from Wakayama, Japan. He studied architecture at Musashino Art University and worked as a hairdresser, until he turned to wood at 28. For about seven years he designed Echizen lacquerware in Fukui. In 2012 he started his own studio, Studio Khii.
He works mostly with sugi, Japanese cedar from the Kii Mountains. He carves his pieces out of solid logs, looking for the shape that is already inside the wood. The surfaces are finished with traditional materials like urushi lacquer, kakishibu (persimmon tannin) and bengara, a red iron oxide.
His work sits somewhere between furniture and sculpture. It was picked up by Rei Kawakubo and has been shown at Dover Street Market in London and New York.
Takashi Kita makes furniture in Tsuyama, in Okayama, Japan. His father started a small welding factory there in 1978. In 2009 Takashi gave it a new start as KITAWORKS, keeping the welding and adding woodwork.
He works with iron, stainless steel, copper, brass and wood, and often puts them together in one piece. Next to furniture, the studio also makes fixtures for shops.
For him a piece should feel like it was born, not made. Furniture that stays close to you, on busy days and on quiet afternoons.
Matsumoto Kagu Kenkyusyo is a small furniture workshop in Kurashiki, in Okayama, Japan. The name means Matsumoto furniture lab.
They make their own designs in solid wood and finish them by hand with fuki-urushi, a lacquer that is wiped on in thin layers so the grain stays visible.
Their work takes its cue from old Korean Joseon furniture: simple, calm and made to be used for a long time. They also make pieces to order.
Masaru Kawai is a woodworker in Mino-kamo, in Gifu, Japan, and the director of SOMA. He works almost only with Japanese cedar and hinoki.
About 70% of Japan is forest, but most of the wood used in the country is imported. In 2016 he started SOMA, a line of everyday objects made only from Japanese wood, so that this wood gets the value it deserves.
His work has been shown in Kyoto, Tokyo, Stockholm and Taiwan.
Brug is Dutch for bridge. That is what we try to be.
EMBRUG is a small studio for objects, materials and the people who make them. We work with designers and makers we believe in, and bring their work to people who will live with it.
We look for things made by hand, slowly and with care. Pieces that feel calm, that age well and that show where they come from.
Most of what we show is made to order. That means we can talk about size, colour and finish, and make something that fits you and your space.
Questions about a piece, a custom order or working together? Send us a message.
Amsterdam, NL
Tokyo, JP
Mon to Fri:
9AM – 5PM
Amsterdam 00:00 · Tokyo 00:00
hello@embrug.com
OrdersMost pieces are made when you order them. Want a different size or colour? Just ask, we like making things together.
