Journal

Ginza Flagship Store

Kuri no Ma, First Floor

Ahead of our 50th anniversary in 2027, we unveil our new flagship store on September 8, 2026—a culmination of the journey we have taken so far.

It stands on Nishi-Ginza Gobangai Street, a corner of Ginza that, despite the brilliance of the surrounding cityscape, still retains the atmosphere of long-established shops. Set within an entire four-story building in the heart of Ginza, each floor has been given its own distinct world. Carpenters joined the timber, plasterers finished the walls, and throughout the building we brought together the materials and craftsmanship of traditional Japanese architecture.

Chestnut has always held a special place in the way 45R builds its stores. Used as a building material in Japan since the Jomon period, chestnut is a hard, durable wood with a substantial presence. From the original Badou-R to our Kyoto store, it has appeared again and again in the pillars, walls, and floors of our freestanding shops. The first floor of the Ginza Flagship Store brings together chestnut on a scale that feels like the culmination of everything we have learned through years of storemaking.

At the entrance to the Ginza Flagship Store, guests are welcomed by an automatic sliding door. Inside, two massive daikoku-bashira pillars rise at the center beneath heavy beams, while further pillars are assembled in a way that recalls a cloister. All are made from reclaimed chestnut timber.

Each piece was salvaged from old Japanese houses built several centuries ago, including storehouse doors and structural pillars that have been carefully relocated and given a new life here.

The hollows left in the pillars are traces of shikuchi, the traditional joints once carved to fit one piece of timber into another. Rather than erase these marks of the carpenters who worked the wood long ago, we chose to preserve them, allowing the history carried by each piece to remain visible.

Alongside the reclaimed timber, we also incorporated chestnut of different ages throughout the space, from display platforms finished with naguri hand-hewing to the wall at the back of the store.

To accompany the chestnut, we chose teak, a wood that stands up well to water and humidity.

Prized for centuries in shipbuilding, teak is now subject to strict export restrictions around the world. The timber used in the Ginza Flagship Store is especially rare—stock that had been set aside long before those restrictions came into force.

What catches the eye most is the façade, framed by a massive timber nearly eight meters long.

With the commanding presence of a great torii gate, it stands at the entrance to welcome you into the Ginza Flagship Store.

The massive stone wall that gives the façade its weight and presence is built from Takine stone, quarried in Fukushima Prefecture. To preserve the rock’s natural form, a stone with a corner that already turned in an L-shape was sought out, cut from the quarry, and brought all the way to Ginza.

With a strength to match the great teak timbers beside it, the stone anchors the Ginza Flagship Store. It was quarried and set in place by the Anōshū stonemasons of Shiga, craftsmen who carry forward the stone-stacking techniques once used in castle building during Japan’s Sengoku period.

Across time and across seas, materials shaped by the hands of craftsmen have found their way to the Ginza Flagship Store.

Behind this extraordinary gathering of rare materials is Sankaku-ya, the Kyoto-based sukiya carpentry and architecture group responsible for the construction. Over many years, Sankaku-ya has built up an extraordinary collection of timber and stone. From among it, the master carpenter—someone who knows the character and condition of each material intimately—selected every piece for Ginza.

Bringing them into the building was another story. When the timber arrived from Sankaku-ya’s workshop in Shiga, Nishi-Ginza Gobangai Street was closed in the middle of the night, and each piece was lifted by crane through the windows of the different floors.

The Takine stone on the façade demanded an even more elemental approach. Almost like building a pyramid in ancient Egypt, the enormous rock was rolled by hand over rows of iron rods, little by little, until at last it was set in place.

Beyond the sales floor, where the clothes are displayed, is a space we call the irori.

At its center is a display table made from the door of an old storehouse, reimagined as an irori. Around it, we placed fitting rooms and benches, creating a place where guests can settle in and spend time at ease.

Just as the irori once stood at the heart of everyday life, we hope this will become a place where we and our guests can gather naturally around the clothes.

And so, Kuri no Ma on the first floor became a home for our T-shirts, denim, and bandanas.

Surrounded by chestnut—the material that has been part of our storemaking from the very beginning—you will find the standards we have cherished over the years.

Chestnut deepens in color as time passes. Our clothes may not last for centuries, but we hope they, too, will stay with you for many years, growing richer with time.