Creating a modern looking table making use of the beauty of solid wood involves an attempt to
simultaneously satisfy conflicting requirements. The growth rings that appear in solid wood tell a
story, of the accumulation of time over which the tree has endured the weather. Over a vast span
of time, natural disasters as well as fluctuations of heat and cold and other natural environmental
conditions become part of the tree’s expression. The look of a tree’s growth rings and grain is
unique to it, just as humans are each unique. The story of every tree is engraved in its expression.
Tables made of natural solid wood are often created as “crafted” products that highlight the
expressiveness of solid wood, or else they evoke the image of a still-standing tree with bark intact.
In a contemporary, modern living space, however, designing a solid wood product with a simple,
neutral presence is a very difficult task. How to construct a tabletop and legs in solid wood is also
a serious challenge. The key to resolving it is to make the solid wood of the tabletop look complete
and then figure out the appropriate relationship between the legs and the tabletop. Thus, we came
up with the idea of making a complete independent tabletop and then constructing legs so that
they can harmonize with the tabletop. The tabletop in this design appears to float over the frame to
which the legs are connected. By daring to separate the tabletop from the legs and showing the cut
end of solid wood we took advantage of the tabletop’s thickness and the natural feel of wood grain.
We fixed the legs, positioned at the four corners of the frame supporting the tabletop, firmly to the
frame to achieve a seamless unity. Then by giving importance to the connections between the parts
and making the joins as natural as possible, the thoughtful basement to support the tabletop was
completed. The cut end of the tabletop is mildly rounded, its curves appearing as if sucked down
from the gap between the tabletop and the frame. This serves to give the overall outline of the table
a sense of unity, despite the fact that the tabletop, legs and frames are separately constructed.
The slit between the tabletop and the frame gives an expression of vitality to the solid wood of the
tabletop and the slit adds an attractive visual accent. By carefully fashioning the outline of the table,
we invested the table with delicate but solid detailing, as well as a sense of organic completeness.
This seems to be our first dining table that is easy to combine with almost any type of chair, and
that fits individual expression of natural materials aesthetically with modernity of design. The legs
and the frame that connects them are also mildly rounded, to evoke an overall visual softness and a
feel that expresses the beauty of the natural material. For the finish, we applied an original beeswax
blend, made by combining sunflower oil produced in Hokkaido with a Japanese beeswax. This
enables the unique beauty of the natural wood as it ages to be fully enjoyed. The growth rings and
grain of the wood are expressions of the life history of the tree, but even as a table in an interior
space, the tree lives on and continues to age. As the table is used by a family, wine stains and traces
of oil mark the passage of the family’s time like growth rings. And over time the value unique to the
story of the people who used the table is all that accumulated. This is precisely the kind of table we
wished to create; one with a continuous, never-ending story.