Okurayama Studio

Sculptural Furniture

About

Okurayama Studio is a fifth-generation stonemasonry company located on Mount Okurayama in northeast Japan, founded in 1887. The studio mines the area around the mountain for Daté Kan stone, which formed 20 million years ago following a nearby volcanic explosion — a distinctive and highly durable stone with an earthy texture and a deep grey polished core.

Led by Takasuke Yamada, the fifth-generation head since 2017, the studio was born in Tokyo but raised in Miyagi Prefecture surrounded by musicians, sculptors, and artists who would stay at the family home. "Our house was filled with architecture magazines and books about artists like Joan Miró, Isamu Noguchi, Henry Moore," Yamada recalls. After studying graphic design at Central Saint Martins in London, he returned to Japan to join the family business.

The studio has championed sustainability since the late 1970s. Yamada's father, the fourth-generation head, shifted focus from expansion to restoring the quarried landscape, building cultural facilities including an open-air stone theatre called Ishi-Butai, an indoor music salon called Yamado, and a library. In 2017, the monumental Gendai Iwakura — two giant stones designed as a place for dialogue — was completed.

Today, Daté Kan stone is installed in spaces worldwide: reception desks and bar counters in hotels, dining tables in Michelin-starred restaurants, bathtubs and sculptural objects in private residences. Recent commissions include interiors for Chef Kei Kobayashi's restaurant in Tokyo and the Hilton Kyoto.