“When I walk into the Japanese room Sakaguchi-san constructed in my home, I get in touch with my roots and feel transformed. I think Hiroshi Sakaguchi is a living treasure of Japanese classic carpentry. I want people to realize how valuable and precious his skill is.”
— Hideko Metaxas, Larkspur, CA
Japanese Interiors
“Carpenters in Japan only build the structure. Here, in the United States, I must do everything—design and build the structure, plaster walls, construct doors, windows, and shoji screens. Like an American pioneer, I sometimes even make the furniture and hand-forge the hardware.”
Japanese room (nihonma)
View from Hallway
Japanese tearoom (chashitsu)
Tearoom alcove (tokonoma)
Tearoom with closet kitchen
Interior and veranda (engawa)
Office
Conference room
Kitchen/dining room
Bathing room/ informal tearoom
Half-bathroom/bathing room
Half-bathroom
Entrance (genkan)
Built-in shrine
stairway
Stairway with natural cedar post
Interiors with a Japanese aesthetic have an elegant simplicity that naturally induce relaxation and have the advantage of multifunctioning as a living room, dining room, bedroom, meditation room. A typical Japanese interior (nihonma) has a wooden ceiling, tatami-mat floor, Japanese “mud” plaster walls (juraku), and sliding shoji screens. Hiroshi Sakaguchi designs and constructs both multifunctional Japanese interiors and Japanese rooms with specialized functions such as Japanese tearooms, offices, kitchens, bathing rooms, and entrance rooms. Shoji screens for room separation and window shades are part of the construction as are doors and sliding glass windows. They can also be ordered separately from an interior construction. For general information about design, Japanese carpentry technique and construction procedures, commissioning an interior, and pricing, go to Process and Pricing. For further information, Contact Ki Arts.