Kaikado, Kyoto — Six Generations of Craft, Carried by Hand
Last week in Kyoto, I had the opportunity to meet with Takahiro Yagi, the sixth-generation owner of Kaikado, one of Japan’s oldest makers of chazutsu — handcrafted tea caddies forged with precision and inherited care. I took some photos and videos here.
The shop is modest. But the philosophy is profound. Kaikado’s work has inspired designers around the world (including, reportedly, Steve Jobs), and their approach is built on a quiet paradox: to change without changing.
For more than 150 years, the Yagi family has resisted scale in favor of timelessness. Each tea caddy takes 40 to 50 hours to craft by hand. The copper is sourced in Japan. The joinery is seamless and invisible. And if a caddy breaks — even decades later — they will repair it. Like the business itself, these objects are meant to be handed down.
In the workshop, I spoke with a young craftsman halfway through his ten-year apprenticeship. When I asked what he loved most about the work, he paused and said: “To focus on one thing, and communicate with others through the object itself.”
Everywhere I go, I see the same pattern: true longevity is born not just from durability, but from soul — and the discipline to care for what the world cannot see.
