Sakai Design Business Center Launches its “Produced by Sakai” Brand Featuring Traditional Japanese Technology and Neo-Japanese Modernism in NYC

OSAKA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Sakai Design Business Center Preparatory Office (Headquarters: Sakai City, Osaka, Japan), supported by Sakai City, has launched the “Produced by Sakai” brand featuring traditional Japanese technology and neo-Japanese modernism. It has also started to introduce 11 renowned Japanese creators in NYC as well as to promote their business as creators of the “Produced by Sakai” brand.

Sakai city, located in the center of Japan, is a major city designated by government ordinance. It has one of the largest, ancient burial mounds (kofun) in the world that was constructed 1,500 years ago. During the Sengoku-era (1493-1573) of Japan, Sakai was very prosperous as a port for foreign trade, and it was called “Oriental Venice” by other countries. Over the centuries, Sakai developed into an industrial city. For instance, in the sixteenth century, Sakai started to produce knives for cutting tobacco leaves, and based on the technology, Sakai city has grown as a kitchen knives producing area. Now kitchen knives made in Sakai are highly evaluated by a lot of professional chefs and cuisine specialists.

Sakai is known culturally for having produced Sen-no-Rikyu, Japan’s foremost tea ceremony master, who was responsible for the popularization of tea ceremony culture and has been described as the spiritual home of the quintessentially Japanese aesthetic of “wabi-sabi” (elegant austerity). From Sakai city, which is reputed for its historical features, the Sakai Design Business Center Preparatory Office will introduce Japanese creators together with their products and works to NYC as “Produced by Sakai”.

As the first creators of “Produced by Sakai”, Mr. Hiroyuki Horihata and Ms. Makiko Sekiguchi, designers of “Matohu”, a young fashion label, were introduced with their products targeting retail and fashion trade-related people in New York City on October 21. They introduced their Spring & Summer 2009 Collection under the theme “Tsujigahana”, which is a traditional Japanese hand-dyeing technique that was used in the latter part of the Muromachi era (1392-1493) through to the end of the Momoyama (1568-1603) era in Japan, and the collection attracted many fashion trade-related people with its expression of Japanese beauty and design.

Sakai Design Business Center plans to introduce Japanese cuisine by Mr. Kunio Tokuoka, the executive chef and proprietor of the Arashiyama Kitcho restaurant, which serves Japanese cuisine based on the spirit of the Japanese tea ceremony as “Produced by Sakai” by collaborating with a popular chef in New York City next year. The center will also introduce a total of eleven creators, including Mr. Yasuo Kitayama, an acclaimed Japanese garden designer.

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For more information about The Sakai Design Business Center, visit http://www.s-dbc.jp/index_e.html.