Yakusoku’s Concept
Yakusoku aims to honor the artists whose work we offer along with the tenacity of New York and Japan. Amidst the unfortunate closure of many boutiques, and recent vacancies in the storefronts of Manhattan, we look to share our love of Japanese culture with you and make art like this more accessible to America. In doing so we hope to be part of the revitalization of the city we love. We build partnerships with artists in locations that are domestically famed in Japan for their respective tradition. A curated collection of heirloom quality pieces, Yakusoku focuses on hand crafted works done in techniques that are hundreds or thousands of years old. Our artists do justice to these traditions by making pieces that serve functional purposes and reserve the same place in our hearts as those from previous generations. We hope to bring an artwork into your life that will evoke joy every time you use it.
Founded in response to the pandemic, Yakusoku aims to bring the experience of shopping in rural towns in Japan to New York. Since tourism to Japan is currently restricted for the United States, and because a large number of kilns in these traditions do not have an online presence, many works of art are now inaccessible to parts of the international audience that revere Japanese culture so highly.
Originally a professor and her student, founders Keiko Nishioka and Samuel Noto share a vision of enriching daily lives with art. Having discovered a new passion in Japanese Calligraphy, Sam continued to practice with Keiko after graduation. What started with Calligraphy soon turned into a friendship complimented by a shared appreciation for Japanese crafts. Starting with the traditions that produced the pieces Keiko's family used during her upbringing in Japan, as well as the ones Samuel would bring back from his extensive travels in Japan as gifts for his family, we have grown to include works that we have discovered along the way.
At Yakusoku, we consider the pieces we carry to be living art. As they are of heirloom quality, we hope that you will take great care of the products we sell and pass them on in good condition for the next generation. The value of these pieces is not just in the exceptional quality of the production by small -often times family- collections of artisans in Japan, but also in the memories that are made when living with them. Like the best art, the meaning is one that you bestow on it. This sensibility can also be seen in Japanese Calligraphy where the piece of art created is a reminder of the time when you focused on motion and the intention behind each stroke of your brush. We want to share the beauty of this practice so that everyone can access the therapeutic exercise of mindfulness required to produce Japanese Calligraphy. Yakusoku will be offering workshops in Japanese Calligraphy as well as kintsugi, the art of mending with gold. We hope that you will share in our appreciation of the symbolic nature of these practices.
We are honored to present works from artists in Koishiwara, Fukuoka; Bizen, Okayama; Hasami, Nagasaki; and Kyoto. In the coming months we hope to add Arita Porcelain and Akita wood works to our showroom.
