nana’s green tea AEON TAKAOKA
Ishikawa, Japan / 2019

“musou-mado”

Nanaha is a company that sends to the world “a new shape of Japan” by introducing various perspectives to look at drinking matcha – Japanese powdered green tea.
It offers, through modernly arranged menu, a high quality matcha, such as matcha latte and so on. Thus, as the owner of the store expressed himself: “ I want to create a store where people can enjoy a traditional Japanese tea culture in a modern sophisticated way”, a desired shop space was designed to reflect not “Japanese style interior” but a modern tea room.

In this regard, the window type used in a tea room is a traditional style doubled-lattice window called ‘musou-mado’. It is a narrow vertical plate that is spaced by other vertical plate whilst open, and it is arranged in the front and back by fixing two exactly the same lattice frames. In addition, it can be opened and closed, as it acts like a sliding door, by fixing an external part and joining it to the inside. This way it moves to the left and right like a sliding door.

The design takes its inspiration from Joan, a two and a half sized tea room house, in the Yurakuen Garden in Inuyama City in Aichi prefecture.

Accordingly, in Nana`s Green Tea store Aeon Mall in Takaoka City, be using double-lattice windows, design aims to adjust light and human eye sight.
In practice, the store was designed to enable customers freely and personally adjust their visibility and natural light by creating doubled-lattice windows either between seating space and aisle or between the seating space and the outside.

Designed by Masahiro Yoshida and Yoshie Ishii
Photos by Keisuke Miyamoto