GINZA FLAGSHIP STORE — AI NO MA 藍の間, 3F | 45R Official Brand Site

GINZA FLAGSHIP STORE — AI NO MA 藍の間, 3F

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The third floor is Ai no Ma, a space created to carry the story of Japanese indigo out into the world.

Pillars and rafters of hinoki, one of Japan’s most emblematic timbers, are assembled overhead. At the center stands a hinoki display table finished with traditional naguri, while the floor is laid in an ichimatsu checkerboard of alternating indigo-colored and natural hinoki boards.

Step inside, and the gentle whiteness of hinoki and its clean, refreshing scent fill the room.

Bringing out the character of the wood and giving the room its richness of expression is the work of the plasterers.

If the carpenter creates the bones of a space, the plasterer gives it texture and face. The carefully worked floors and walls were finished by the craftsmen of Kusumi Sakan, heirs to plastering techniques cultivated in Kyoto over generations.

The plasterwork comes into its own on the walls stretching along both sides of the room. A pearlescent gradation of white and indigo recalls sunlight shimmering across the surface of the sea.

The effect is created by spraying indigo color over white plaster finished with a gently uneven texture. Set against the hinoki, these walls give the room a poised, luminous clarity.

The fitting-room walls take a texture normally associated with cement-finished doma floors and bring it onto a vertical surface. Because cement applied directly to a wall would crack, plaster was used instead to recreate its coarse, granular feel.

As a final accent, gravel was thrown onto the surface before it had fully dried. Once dry, some of the stones were brushed away, leaving only the irregular relief of their impressions behind. Every wall carries the ingenuity and skill of the plasterer’s craft.

In the two corners of the room, a pair of small indigo craftsmen are absorbed in their work.

Aihiko, the boy standing at the rim of an indigo vat, wraps a skein of indigo-soaked yarn around a rod and wrings it tight. Aihime, the girl beside him, hangs freshly dyed yarn over a bamboo pole to dry. At Aihiko’s feet, the vat is filled to the brim with fermenting indigo, its surface alive with the bubbles and bloom known as the “indigo flower.”

The two figures were created by sculptor Satoshi Yabuuchi, also known as the creator of Sento-kun, the official mascot of Nara Prefecture. Bado-bō, who lives at Badou-R, is another of Yabuuchi’s works.

Aihiko 藍比古

Aihime 藍比女

The third floor is home to our “Ai Shokunin Iroiro 45” collection.

To carry the story of Japanese indigo out into the world, we brought together traditional materials and patterns such as hinoki and the ichimatsu checkerboard. In a space filled with a pleasant sense of tension and the clear scent of hinoki, indigo garments dyed by craftsmen rooted in communities across Japan are brought together.

Even if you have seen our Ai Shokunin pieces before, we hope that encountering them in this setting will reveal something new in their character.

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