Collaborative and Multicultural Ceramics at Made by Kihara

When visitors walk through the door of the boutique Made by Kihara, located at 7 rue des Filles du Calvaire in Paris’ third arrondissement, they quickly get the impression of having been propelled into a boutique workshop in the heart of Tokyo. With its large wooden displays and refined décor, Made by Kihara seeks to showcase work produced jointly by Japanese artisans and European designers. 

Made by Kihara is the story of a friendship between Kihara, a porcelain producer since 1955 in the Imari region on Kyushu island —considered the birthplace of Japanese ceramics— and Timothée Kaplan, who now runs the boutique. After meeting at the Maison&Objet trade fair in 2016 and embarking on a few trips to Arita (a city in the Imari region), their shared desire to showcase Kihara’s craftsmanship and heritage led Timothée Kaplan to open a pop-up store on the rue des Filles du Calvaire in 2021. This store later became a permanent boutique. 

Small manufacturers whose work is not widely distributed in Europe

The shelves house collections produced by the brand and by Kihara in Japan, and a selection of artisan items produced in the Arita region. The ambition is always to select small manufacturers whose items are not widely distributed in Europe, if at all. 

Made by Kihara’s collections, produced in small quantities and exclusively distributed in the boutique or on the brand’s website, always go through the same creative process. ‘Our collaborations are devised based on existing collections or historic styles of porcelain from Arita. The creatives we work with typically have a clearly defined style, so we ask them to adapt it to the themes, colours and shapes present in the collections and revisited styles’, Timothée Kaplan explains.

‘The process combines research, sketches and meetings with our team via our physical (and now virtual) residency programme. We arrange for our artists to visit different locations, kilns and workshops so they can be immersed in the local culture. Once all this is done, we establish the idea for the collection to be produced and work with our artisans so we can achieve the desired result.’

Made by Kihara thus showcases craftsmanship in the Arita region which, faced with global competition, the drop in domestic demand and the rural exodus, is gradually losing its market. 

More information about Made by Kihara can be found on the boutique’s website.
Address: 7 rue des Filles du Calvaire, 75003 Paris