LETTERS FROM KYOTO

A city that has been making things beautifully for twelve centuries, and still takes commissions. Letters From Kyoto opens the machiya doors on Japanese interior design at its most exact: Nishijin weavers working since 1688, the coopers and tea-caddy makers still filling orders by hand, Tadao Ando’s quiet additions to the old streets, and hotel rooms from Aman to The Mitsui that turn restraint into luxury. We spend a chapter in Gojozaka at the house of the potter Kawai Kanjiro. He designed it himself in 1937, his brother, a master carpenter, built it, and behind it stands the eight-chamber climbing kiln he fired until his death in 1966. Plus the kissaten, the kaiseki, and the moss garden on the cover.

Each edition carries the city’s palette, drawn here from murasaki, the old court purple, and bengara red; notes on sourcing from Kyoto’s workshops, where the waiting list is part of the craft; and a letter to the city at the back.