This should be a free article and not paywalled at FT

The obsessive perfection of the Japanese artisan.

https://on.ft.com/3VPhpip


Kojiro Kitada, woodworker
The furniture made by woodworker Kojiro Kitada can be seen as a stool, or turned around to become a side table. Depending on where you view it from, it could also resemble a Brâncuși sculpture. 

Kitada’s pieces are carved from a single block of wood at his workshop in Taishi town, about an hour’s drive from Osaka. It is an area bordering Nara Prefecture, which is rich in forest resources and convenient for timber. 

Kitada shares an old sawmill with several other craftspeople. His windswept workshop, lined only by tin walls, is divided into two parts – a building for bringing in long logs and a storage area for the sawn timber. He works surrounded by wood, beginning first by observing the grain. Then, using a chisel and planer, he starts to carve.