Soukai Space: Shop That Solves Your Worries

This was my second visit, and you can clearly feel that business is better than before. On this visit, the overall display and layout of the shop had basically stayed the same, but almost all of the pieces on show had been replaced. Listening to the owner talk about the various events they will be attending soon, I genuinely felt happy for them. The cups in the shop are truly beautiful. A lot of thought has gone into both the craftsmanship and the design, and the prices are not exactly cheap either, averaging around 500 CNY. If you think in terms of value and factor in the amount of time and effort these makers invest in their work, including artists like Noboru Yagihashi, Momoko Otani, Maya Inamura, Manabu Yoshida, Masaru Kikuchi, Nobuyuki Nakanishi, Zhong Youjian and Kaname Takeguchi, the pricing actually makes sense. Many of these creators graduated from institutions such as Tama Art University, Tokyo University of the Arts and Musashino Art University. In terms of international reach and commercial scale, their work may not yet have a particularly large market. They are more like ceramics graduates from schools such as the Central Academy of Fine Arts, China Academy of Art or the Royal College of Art, who gain experience through participating in domestic and international exhibitions and then return to their own studios to continue creating. It all comes down to whether the general public is willing to pay that extra aesthetic premium.

Although the name “Soukai Space” has a bit of an old school martial arts flair to it and sounds like something out of a heroic tavern scene, in reality it is a small husband and wife shop. Stepping into the compact space, you get a sense of abundance, variety and order. When I chatted with the owner and asked why he decided to open this kind of shop, it was as if he had a mission. He immediately opened up. Many excellent brands either do not know how or are not willing to pour money into marketing and therefore never become widely known. Unlike the popular or heavily promoted products on the market, many artisans spend a great deal of time polishing and iterating their work. The owner wants to uphold a rigorous selection standard and gradually bring truly practical and well designed products to the attention of the wider world. Whether it is exquisite embroidery designs, simple fabrics and textiles or a single display cabinet, a potted plant, all of these have been carefully integrated into the space by the shop.