Master Veneer Craft from Tokushima, Japan

Founded in 1953 in Tokushima, a city on the island of Shikoku in southern Japan, Mori Kougei has spent over 70 years perfecting the art of Tsuki-Ita: slicing natural wood into paper-thin sheets with a blade, then reading the grain of each piece to compose it into something greater. Now in its third generation under craftsman Hiroyuki Mori, the studio carries forward a practice rooted in inherited knowledge and an acute sensitivity to wood as natural art.

Working across more than 90 wood species sourced from around the world, Mori Kougei's artisans arrange varying grains and tones into geometric compositions, including their signature Kōsen-bari technique, in which veneer triangles radiate outward from a center point. The result is a tray that shifts with the light as you tilt it, the surface appearing to glow from within.