Tokyo Building Offers Crafts, Design Features

The Axis Building, in the heart of the bustling and trendy Roppongi District, is like a museum of contemporary crafts and design, but everything is for sale.

The sleek, six-story brick building houses 24 shops and three galleries. They feature impressive collections of Japanese and imported interior design accessories, furnishings for home and office, toys and games, clothing and other carefully selected accouterments of the fashionable, modern life style.

The Axis Building opened in 1983. It is run by Bridgestone Tire Co., the business venture that also backs the Bridgestone Museum of Art, one of Tokyo’s leading Western art galleries. The Axis Building and its occupants are on the cutting edge of contemporary design.

The building itself establishes a fashionable, modernistic ambiance. A central, open courtyard, on the basement level, provides a sense of quiet and space. There are wooden benches, potted plants, a flower vendor and several attractive restaurants that give respite from Tokyo’s crowded closeness.

Views of Tokyo

Shop entrances are on balconies, overlooking the courtyard. Upper levels offer exciting views of Tokyo. Each shop has a distinctive personality, an ambiance established by unusual merchandise and clever displays. Some Axis shops have turned interior design into high art.

About 70% of the goods sold in the Axis Building are made in Japan. Japanese contemporary design tends to combine traditional craftsmanship and techniques with modern, minimalist lines, high-tech conception and a commitment to functionality.

The wares in Bushy, on the basement level, are good examples. The shop sells lacquerware furniture and accessories, made in the traditional Japanese way (by applying many layers of varnish from the urushi tree), but the designs are contemporary. Tetsuo Nakagawa’s fabulous fire-engine red lounge chair is basically two lacquered wooden boards, joined at an angle of about 100 degrees. The joined boards rest on short legs. The seat is beautiful and, with measurements ideal for a semi-reclined person, very comfortable. The lacquer is elegant and durable.

Bushy also has lacquer furniture designed by European artists, but executed by Japanese craftsmen. One German-designed chest of drawers is a square tower (measuring about 2-by-2-by-5-feet of shiny black lacquer with golden flecks (the technique is called maki-e . It is to be placed in the center of the room; drawers of various depths (from 3 to 8 inches) open on all sides. Cost: about $12,000.

Smaller decorative pieces are also sold: mirrors, stylishly simple red lacquer bowls ($50 each), lovely lacquer bangles ($20-$40).

Sleek Furniture and Supplies

On the second floor, Design Matrix specializes in sleek office furniture and supplies in black, white or gray, with red accents. There are desks, drafting tables, file cabinets, modernistic chairs on wheels, and a rich array of leather and plastic briefcases and storage containers. Smaller items include black and white paper clips ($1 per box), staplers, loose paper and pads, envelopes. There are pens and pencils to suit every hand, and various colored lead drawing pencils with handsome black wood casings (50 cents each) and black steel mesh pencil case ($15). Some items are overpriced; a standard black leather Filofax date book costs $185.

Lapis, an art supply store on the third floor, has a great choice of pads, drawing materials and paints, all attractively packaged. There is an array of tapes of all sorts.

Spiral, on the basement level, has fascinating clocks, conceived by Shiro Kuromata, Takamichi Ito and other artists. Most of the clocks are numberless. One wall of the shop is covered by clocks that tell time by means of rotating colored circles, geometric patterns, pins and pegs ($70 and up). The display is accompanied by a thought-provoking legend: “The changes in your life shift your visions of time.” Table-top models include elegant timepieces that resemble record players with rotating black concentric circles, each marked by a single silver dot ($50). Others swirl circles of color as time passes on. The store carries several dozen styles, most battery powered. There are also watches that out-style Swatches.

Chairs, on the fourth floor, specializes in (surprise!) chairs. They are avant-garde, often amusing. Bases are made of multicolored spirals, or heavy chrome-plated wires whimsically shaped into many-toed “feet.” Prices from $400-$800.

Butter-Soft Leather Sofas

Cassina Japan, on the third floor, is an Italian import furniture store. The sumptuous, butter-soft leather sofas and chairs, brass and chrome lamps, beautiful tables and other accessories are gorgeous, but much more expensive than in Europe. The store has a distinctive use of space. A small, rectangular compartment has been expanded by using partial walls as subdividers. These have cut-outs that visually open one small room into another--a wonderful design.

Lighting fixtures, contemporary and traditional, Japanese and imported, are available at Livina Yamagawa on the second floor. Great variety and an abundance of good taste. If you buy, be careful that electric current and plug are compatible with American outlets.

Living Motif, on the first floor, sells modern kitchen gadgets, including well-designed bottle openers, corkscrews and nutcrackers ($3-$25), pepper mills ($15-$35), hand-painted platters, bowls and other ceramics by Tokyo Potters (about $45-$100).

Kiss, on the basement level, is a French-Japanese restaurant that also sells ($80 and up), chopsticks and some fabulous platters--one special item is a wooden platter with stones inlaid to serve as handles (about $425).

The Savoie Vivre Gallery, on the third floor, exhibits pottery and lacquerware. Sometimes the wood-and-gauze-based lacquer work of Hideo Azuma is shown. Azuma is a young craftsman with a studio in the Axis basement. His textural bowls sell for about $125.

Also in the basement, Nuno sells the heavy, textural cottons of fabric designer Junichi Arai, who used to work with Issey Miyake and Rae Kawakubo’s Comme des Garcons. The fabrics are made with traditional Japanese weaving methods, but incorporate modern patterns. Beautiful and distinctive, in blues, grays and earth tones, they’re displayed on large rolls mounted on the walls.

Comfortable, Casual Clothes

For those who want their fabrics as wearables, Rae Kawakubo’s Robe De Chambre (a division of Comme des Garcons), on the second floor, offers comfortable at-home and casual clothes. The shop’s environment is spare: an almost empty room with white walls and an off-white marble floor contains a parson’s table and several chairs. The clothing is behind a wall of fogged glass. It is meticulously folded and stacked on shelves. A four-piece ensemble (trousers, shirt, vest and jacket) costs about $400.

Also on the second floor, Tint is haute designer Jurgen Lehl’s outlet for at-home attire, and bath and bedroom accessories. Patterned bed sheets ($35-$55) for a flat sheet) and richly colored towels (washcloths from $3-$6; hand towels from $6-$12) are stacked on shelves. Clothing hangs on racks. A beautiful silk robe lined with cotton sells for about $225.

The Axis Building is at 5-17-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku. Telephone: 587-2781. Take a cab to Roppongi Kosaten (crossing) and walk a few blocks toward the Ten/Ten Market. Shop hours vary. Opening times range from 10 to 11 a.m.; closing times from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Most shops are closed on Mondays, some on Sundays. Most have English-speaking staff, will take credit cards and are experienced in shipping large items.

Prices quoted reflect the rate of exchange at the time of writing.