Sea vegetable Circulation
SEA VEGETABLE COMPANY
Story
“Somewhere, Sometime” is the idea of obake, who won the Grand Prix at the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD 2020. Old materials from demolished buildings and furniture are transformed into pencils as "tools that stimulate people's imagination," and the memories of the materials are passed on to the next generation. The surface of the pencil is designed to retain the surface where the pencil was used and to include information on the location where the wood was used.
Later, together with KOKUYO, they commercialized a pencil made of wood from a 140-year-old private house in Hyogo Prefecture that was being rebuilt.
In the second phase, KOKUYO and East Japan Railway Co., Ltd. made pencils from the walls and flooring of Ino Station, a wooden station building in Gunma that will be regrettably replaced by a new building. A pencil-making of Ino Station’s wood workshop was also held.
The third item was a piece of wood from the Takanawa embankment and pine piles that were accidentally discovered during JR East's construction of the Takanawa Gateway Station area, which supported the opening of Japan's first railroad in 1872. It is a precious wood that has become semi-fossilized after being buried underground for many years.
The unique hue of the aged wood, the rough but somehow gentle texture, and the touch of the wood are sold as a product that tells the story of far-off memories. The project has also developed into a project to preserve a part of the Takanawa Chikkyo Embankment, now called the railroad remains, by the hands of local people and those who want to have it.
