⑮TAKAHASHIKengo Cast aluminum flower incense container, “KU-GE” 2024

While Takahashi has never beencomfortable with the term “functional beauty” in developing his own view of crafts and has never been interested in the restrictions of “utility,” he has produced incense containers for the first time. He took on the challenge because in exploring free forms, he gained technical skills, expressive ability, and a deep understanding of crafts. Since adding smal l flowers as decoration would increase the size of the product, he first explored basic shapes and created five types of incense containers: rectangle, rhombus, hexagon, and large and small circles, which he planned in increments of one millimeter. He says that in addition to his own pursuit of expression, he was able to gain a perspective on the “strength” of his works by putting himself in the shoes of the user. He also found it very interesting to realize that the flow of the movement of using the incense container required him to cover not only the sense of sight, which he had been aware of, but also the senses of touch, smell, and even hearing, such as the faint sound when the lid is opened and closed. Takahashi hopes to produce other types of vessels in the future.