The Counter — Architecture and Cypress

An inverted boat hull

One board, three point four metres.

The plan is an inverted boat hull: eight chairs on a shallow curve, facing a single unjointed board of hinoki cypress three point four metres long. There are no tables. The room seats eight and no more, which is the whole argument of the place.

From the street there is an unmarked indigo noren and a paper lantern, lit when the first seating begins. If the lantern is dark, the room is not serving.

The small ware is thrown by Anagnostou Pottery on Aegina each winter. The chairs and the counter came from Saito-san in Kyoto, eventually.