Nanbu Ironware studio in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, founded in 1625. The current building dates back to 1885, the year after a large fire broke out in the town, and was built in the machiya style with the store, main building, central courtyard, and studio arranged in connection within a long, narrow plot. Inside the studio, the molding and polishing of the ironware after setting are done facing a sliding window set high up on the southeast wall so that the area around the artisanʼs hands does not succumb to shade. Another high window set above the artisanʼs seat allows light to enter the studio. Above the fire-working space is a window designed to let out smoke, where a simple net is all that separates the room from the outside air. Above that is a roof complete with snow guards.
Suzuki Morihisa Studio Ltd.
(Nanbu Ironware / Morioka, Iwate Prefecture)
This article is an excerpt from “Window Workology,” a joint research project concerning windows and the behaviors around them done in collaboration with Tokyo Institute of Technologyʼs Yoshiharu Tsukamoto Laboratory.