KUME Co.,Ltd. Press Room & Shop

A press room and shop of the oldest T-shirt manufacturer, renovated after 70 years in business. This company was the first to manufacture T-shirts in Japan, and has taken pride in the T-shirts being manufactured by Japanese. The company requested to embody the shape of the press room and shop so that the culture that T-shirts are “the simplest clothing” will be developed, in addition to the normal shop functions (attracting people and selling products). “How Japanese style T-shirts should be” was pursued, and “human scales completely based on the human body” are used as the answer to sprits of attachment that the Japanese have inherited from the ancient times⋅⋅⋅attachment to details of clothing + comfort, using specially developed fibers balancing fineness and technology. The human scale in Japanese spaces is “Ken (about 1.82 m)”. Along with the modulor that Le Corbusier suggested, there are Japanese modules to reflect the Japanese body, such as “Shaku”, “Sun”, “Ken” and “Jo”. It was expected that the use of suitable modules would produce abundant and very Japanese human scales. The length of the suspension furniture where 10 T-shirts are displayed is 35 Shaku (=10,500 mm). This length represents the last two numbers in the year 1935, when the company was established. All the heights of the doors and openings are in the Japanese scale of 70 Sun 70 Bu (=2,333 mm), and the 70 represents that the shop was renovated and reopened in the 70th year since the company was established. The path widths and distances between tables are set to 1 Ken and 0.5 Ken that are favored by Japanese. These Japanese modules, Shaku, Sun, Ken and Jo are used exclusively. These Japanese modules help create a “Japanese” atmosphere. Customers from overseas have commented on how “Japanese” they feel at the shop. At the same time, furniture, except for the suspension furniture, can be moved in accordance to events and festivals so that this space can be used flexibly. This flexibility is a prime example of the Japanese human scales. This space is a good example of producing Japanese human scales by eliminating unnecessary decorations and making the space simple through the intensive use of Japanese modules, such as Shaku, Sun, Ken and Jo.