すみずみ

Cart

Your cart is empty.

Add something from the shop.

JOURNAL

Stories from the Forest.

Field notes, process writing, and longer reads from Niyodogawa.

LATEST

CHARCOAL

How Oak Becomes Charcoal: A Day at the Kiln

The earthen kiln has been in the same spot for decades. We spend a full day at the fire, from the first split log to the moment the flue is sealed.

April 2026·8 min

More Stories

COMMUNITY

Niyodo Blue Park: A Riverbank Worth Keeping

There was a stretch of the Niyodogawa bank below the bridge that had been used informally for years — swimming, fishing, the occasional barbecue — but it had never been properly maintained or made accessible. The project began with a simple question: what would it take to make this permanent?

March 2026·5 min

COMMUNITY

Problems Corner: What It Means to Be a Neighbour

Niyodogawa has an ageing population and not enough people to help with the practical things. Problems Corner started because someone needed their gutters cleared.

February 2026·5 min

STAY

The Niyodogawa River: What Makes It So Clear

The river running past Sumi no Ie consistently ranks among the clearest in Japan. The geology, the forest management, and the lack of industry all play a part.

December 2025·5 min

COMMUNITY

Six Empty Houses, One Town: Notes on the Akiya Problem

Japan has eight million vacant houses. Niyodogawa has hundreds. We've been inside some of them. The problem isn't the buildings — it's everything around them.

November 2025·9 min

STAY

Making a House a Home: The Story of Sumi no Ie

A hundred-year-old farmhouse in Iwagara sat empty for six years before we got the keys. What followed was fourteen months of careful work — structural repair, full clearance, and the slow process of building an interior that felt like it had always been there.

October 2025·8 min

STAY

The Second House: Notes on the Iwagara Residence

The second property in Niyodogawa came to us through the same network as the first — a local introduction, a family with no plan for the building, and a structure that was better than it looked. The process was faster this time. We knew what we were doing.

September 2025·6 min

CRAFTS

Soup Curry Trance: Design in a Different Register

Most of the work Sumizumi does is in Niyodogawa. Soup Curry Trance was different — a restaurant project in Kochi City, outside our usual territory. The challenge was taking what we understand about materials and slowness and applying it to something fast-paced and urban.

August 2025·6 min