A campaign to reinvigorate the furniture industry in Okawa, Japan, is using miniature mid-century modern furniture sized just for cats.
“Craftsman Made” is a campaign dreamed up by Hiromatsu Wood Work Co. and Onishi Wood Crafts Co. Hiromatsu’s 88-year old designer Yu Watanabe said in a blog post, “I was also making furniture for children, I thought that for cats is also interesting.” He noted the huge popularity of cats across the globe and especially in Japan, so it seemed natural to use felines to promote furniture.
Sized just for a cat, the bed from Onishi Wood Crafts, offers a comfortable sleeping spot for your feline.
Some of the furniture is based on Hiromatsu’s Santa Fe line of pine furniture. The feline miniatures are even scratched by hand to reflect the distressing techniques used for the full-size pieces. (What? They didn’t wait for the cats to scratch the furniture themselves?) “It is work that can only be done manually,” said Watanabe. “Skill and the sense of the craftsmen are necessary to give natural taste.”
The campaign is all about long-lasting craftsmanship. “We cherish the lives of customers and provide furniture with a high quality of living, making furniture,” said Watanabe in the blog post. “For that purpose, we think that we need to pursue comfort in the whole space, not furniture alone, we also produce items related to our lives, such as watches, lights, wooden toys and bags. As furniture there is universality, and things that can be used for a long time.”
Emphasizing hand work and attention to detail, the makers at Hiromatsu and Onishi hope their cat furniture brings attention to all of their furniture craftsmanship.
They describe the furniture as “capricious and free-spirited,” much like cats. You can watch a video showing cats checking out the furniture below.
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