Silver Furniture Design · 2025
Sakura Cyclone Table
- A' Design Award 2025 Silver Winner in Furniture Design
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- CLIENT: Tomoaki Kageyama
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 50,725
- Verification code 8F0B693284 · Verify this award
About Sakura Cyclone Table
This is a low table made of molded cherry plywood. This table usually looks like a large cherry tree growing on the earth. On the other hand, when turning on the light, the cherry blossom blooms in a shadow and makes the space brilliant. It is a table that turns an evening into a special time. Cherry blossom is an important symbol in Japan. But cherry blossoms bloom for only about one week of the year. This table is designed with the fleeting brilliance of the Cherry blossom tree.
Within the tradition of contemporary craft furniture that bridges sculptural expression and functional design, this table by TOMOAKI KAGEYAMA emerges as a meditation on natural forces made manifest through masterful wood manipulation. The work participates in a distinguished lineage of bentwood innovation extending from nineteenth-century pioneering furniture makers through mid-century Scandinavian organic modernism to contemporary studio furniture practice, yet achieves a distinctive voice through its explicit reference to the ephemeral beauty of cherry blossom season and the swirling atmospheric energies that scatter petals across spring landscapes. The designer demonstrates exceptional command of lamination and bending techniques, coaxing rigid wood into flowing curves that appear to defy the material's inherent structural logic while actually exploiting its fibrous strength along curved paths. Each wooden member maintains consistent visual weight while describing compound curves that interweave without collision, suggesting careful parametric planning or intuitive spatial reasoning of the highest order. The chromatic warmth of the wood establishes grounding natural presence while the crystalline transparency of the glass top introduces contemporary lightness and visual permeability. The formal tension between the organic complexity of the base and the geometric purity of the circular top creates productive dialogue between nature and geometry, process and product, movement and stability. The work invites consideration of time itself, both the cyclical seasonal time referenced by the sakura nomenclature and the arrested moment of the cyclone captured in permanent wooden form. How might this table transform the domestic rituals enacted upon its surface into celebrations of natural beauty and human craft?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- This design proposal is a low table made of molded cherry plywood. The unique point of this table is the design of the shadow that falls from the table. This table usually looks like a large cherry tree growing on the earth. On the other hand, when turning on the light, the cherry blossom blooms in a shadow and makes the space brilliant. It is a table that turns an evening into a special time.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The furniture was made in a workshop in the Hida region in Japan, a famous furniture production area in Japan. The size of this table is H400 mm*D400 mm, W400mm.
- Tags
- Table, Cherry blossom, Sakura, shadow
- Production Technology
- The furniture is made of Molded plywood. Detailed mating is the key to designing accurate shadows. I created a mechanism to adjust the angle of the plywood installation with wires, allowing fine adjustment of the falling shadows.
- Design Challenge
- It was difficult to consider the configuration of parts to realize that only when the pendant light is turned on at night a shadow falls and cherry blossoms bloom. I created several scale models and conducted many experiments to check the shadows by turning on the lights. Then, I realized this idea using the construction method of diagonally mating R500mm curved wood.
- Project Duration
- The project started in 2022 in Nagoya Japan and finished at the end of 2023.
- Operation Flow
- During the day, users relax with a cup of tea or a book at the table, where they can feel the warmth of the wood. At night, they can spend a special time drinking a glass of wine on the table, which becomes as brilliant as a cherry tree in full bloom thanks to the shadows cast by the room light. We envision that this table will also used in restaurants or pubs.
- Research
- I explored the essential elements of Japaneseness in order to create a table that is uniquely Japanese. In the process, I came across the famous book “In Praise of Shadows” by the famous Japanese classic writer, Junichiro Tanizaki. Through this book, Tanizaki showed that since ancient times, Japanese people have been conscious of the shadows behind light and have found a sense of beauty in these shadows. Therefore, we designed this table based on the hypothesis that we could create essentially Japanese furniture by designing the shadows that fall from the table, which modern people are usually unaware of.
- Inspiration
- This table is a conceptual design in my lab. I tried to incorporate Japanese essential aesthetics into a Western furniture table.
Cherry blossom is an important symbol in Japan. But cherry blossoms bloom for only about one week of the year. Japanese people are fascinated by the momentary brilliance of cherry blossoms. I designed it with the fleeting brilliance of the Cherry blossom tree.
Colors of Sakura Cyclone Table
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G0E2 ShopDesign Interview about Sakura Cyclone Table
Inspired by “In Praise of Shadows” by the great Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki.
The goal was to produce furniture with a delicate Japanese sense of beauty that focuses not on light but on shadow.
I am aiming for mass production, but I have not yet found a partner, so I am looking for furniture manufacturers with whom we can collaborate.
Generating the idea did not take long, as I had always wanted to design the shape of the shadow.
However, the process of materializing the idea took a considerable amount of time.
However, the process of materializing the idea took a considerable amount of time.
This is an independent work. This work was produced as part of my research on bending wood.
We are planning to mass produce and sell our products and are looking for a furniture manufacturer to whom we can outsource the production. We are looking for an Italian furniture manufacturer.
I have always wanted to create furniture that expresses the ephemeral beauty of cherry blossoms.
I like the works of Shiro Kuramata, who often designed light, but I, on the contrary, focused on shadows.
Currently, the low table is intended for use in homes, but I am also considering making it into a high table for use in cafes and restaurants.
I don't think there is any other furniture that focuses on the shape of falling shadows.
I named it “Sakura Cyclone Table” because its shape resembles Isamu Noguchi's Cyclone Table.
After hand-drawn sketches, the design was made in CAD.
As mentioned above, the most unique aspect of the design is the shape of the falling shadow.
Mr. Kuroda of Hidakuma, a wood consultant in Hida City, helped me a great deal during the testing and assembly stages of the bending wood.
I did not rely on technology. In an age of technology, I needed to dare to consider this by hand.
I valued actual experiences and inspections, not data or analytical surveys.
The hardest part was figuring out how to assemble the wood to create the desired shadow shape.
I entered this work for the A' Design Award because I thought it would be appreciated in Italy, a country where post-modernism has flourished.
I learned about the characteristics of wood and how interesting it is. I would like to continue to challenge myself to create new works using wood.
None in particular. Thank you very much.
Grand Interview about Sakura Cyclone Table
Shadows falling from objects are generally not considered. On the other hand, Tanizaki's “In Praise of Shadow” states that Japanese people have the feeling of finding beauty in shadows rather than in light. With this in mind, I attempted to express the ephemeral splendor of cherry blossoms using shadows. I chose a table, a piece of Western furniture, because I thought it would accentuate the Japanese sense of beauty.
It was challenging to achieve the desired angle at which the molded plywood was assembled to create the shadow of the cherry blossoms. I also fixed them with wires so that they could be adjusted.
"Imagination Margin" refers to the room where the user's thoughts can intervene when looking at or using the product. The Sakura Cyclone Table, which only appears in its original form at certain times, can be said to be equipped with “Imagination Margin”.
After sketching the idea, I produced several prototypes with a 3D printer. After that, I went to a plywood factory to discuss with a craftsman about producing the prototypes in wood. However, it turned out that it was difficult to produce the 3D printer model in wood, so we repeated trial and error many times after that. The project was completed in one year.
I received great support from Mr. Kuroda of the design office Hidakuma in Hida. The Sakura Cyclone Table was made possible by a molded plywood factory selected by Mr. Kuroda.
At first, I was thinking of a mechanism that would be supported only by hub bolts, but the shadows didn't fall in good shape. Then, inspired by Michele De Lucchi's “Tolomeo,” I came up with the idea of incorporating a wire adjustment mechanism.
In fact, I have had very little experience in furniture design since I have been designing mobility and home appliances. I think that is why I was able to create innovative furniture ideas.
The idea of having the furniture appear in its original form only at certain times was inspired by the Japanese values of enjoying seasonal scenery and events. Since the majority of furniture is universal, this idea may become a new approach.
Like many Japanese people, I love cherry blossoms. There are many design works using cherry blossoms as a motif, but I have felt that most of them do not capture the essence of the beauty of cherry blossoms. I believe that the essence of cherry blossoms is their ephemeral beauty, which blooms only a few days out of the year. I wanted to express that transience.
First of all, I would like to mass produce the Sakura Cyclone Table. Once mass-produced and in the hands of the public, I hope that this table will take root as a new approach to Japanese furniture design.