‘seppa’ has been designed from the ground up to allow guests to experience what it is like to live alongside swords. In addition to sharing the space with real nihontō (Japanese swords), guests can enjoy curated exhibitions of sword fittings and sword-making tools.
Our hope is to make swords a normal background part of daily life. While they have always been weapons, they have also been talismans, votive objects, and symbols of individual devotion. Worn, displayed, and carefully maintained, swords were an intrinsic part of daily life.
Carved by the master carpenter who once resided in the house, a decorative shelf on the ground floor has been reimagined as an exhibition space for swords. The shape, glittering steel, and endlessly complex temper line of the swords on display quietly attest to their subtle beauty. By having swords visibly present in the main living spaces, we provide guests an organic opportunity to intimately experience the lives that people in ancient Japan spent alongside these captivating blades.
In the second floor bedroom, a tantō is exhibited as an omamorigatana ‘amulet dagger’. To spend a night in the company of such a sword is to understand that, more than just display objects, swords are quiet guardians, companions that quietly, inconspicuously watch over and protect people in their day-to-day lives.
The very building itself evokes the natural forces that give life to a sword. The earthen walls display the same dexterity and craftsmanship used in applying the clay that gives a blade its temper line. The power of fire both makes steel pliable and gives the building’s wooden facade its charcoal finish. A certain purity is suggested by the washi paper that both faces the house’s sliding doors, and is wrapped around the steel when forging a sword. Upon seeing the building’s original surviving well meanwhile, it is hard not to think of the water used when quenching a sword.
Hammer scale from a sword-smith’s forge has even been integrated into the fabric of the earthen floor, given new meaning as a hidden decorative accent.
Swords are a conduit through which we can reveal our true selves. ‘seppa’ embraces this philosophy, creating a space where guests can spend time alongside swords in quiet contemplation.
‘seppa’ has been designed from the ground up to allow guests to experience what it is like to live alongside swords. In addition to sharing the space with real nihontō (Japanese swords), guests can enjoy curated exhibitions of sword fittings and sword-making tools.
Our hope is to make swords a normal background part of daily life. While they have always been weapons, they have also been talismans, votive objects, and symbols of individual devotion. Worn, displayed, and carefully maintained, swords were an intrinsic part of daily life.
Carved by the master carpenter who once resided in the house, a decorative shelf on the ground floor has been reimagined as an exhibition space for swords. The shape, glittering steel, and endlessly complex temper line of the swords on display quietly attest to their subtle beauty. By having swords visibly present in the main living spaces, we provide guests an organic opportunity to intimately experience the lives that people in ancient Japan spent alongside these captivating blades.
In the second floor bedroom, a tantō is exhibited as an omamorigatana ‘amulet dagger’. To spend a night in the company of such a sword is to understand that, more than just display objects, swords are quiet guardians, companions that quietly, inconspicuously watch over and protect people in their day-to-day lives.
The very building itself evokes the natural forces that give life to a sword. The earthen walls display the same dexterity and craftsmanship used in applying the clay that gives a blade its temper line. The power of fire both makes steel pliable and gives the building’s wooden facade its charcoal finish. A certain purity is suggested by the washi paper that both faces the house’s sliding doors, and is wrapped around the steel when forging a sword. Upon seeing the building’s original surviving well meanwhile, it is hard not to think of the water used when quenching a sword.
Hammer scale from a sword-smith’s forge has even been integrated into the fabric of the earthen floor, given new meaning as a hidden decorative accent.
Swords are a conduit through which we can reveal our true selves. ‘seppa’ embraces this philosophy, creating a space where guests can spend time alongside swords in quiet contemplation.
Craftfulness
by ITTO