Wood - Furniture that values wood and life




Touching wood and being surrounded by wood allows the spirit to slowly unwind and feel at rest. The gentle touch and the warmth of trees themselves may be the source of that comfort.

Just like men, there are no two trees that are the same.

Its veins, knots, and bends are proof of its life and the environment in which it has grown…trees have their own unique character too.

WISE·WISE strives to bring out the best of these natural materials in the forms of solid wood, bonded wood, plywood, and sliced veneer while taking care not to waste this precious life with which it was born.

We apply design and technology that build on their individual characteristics and devote passion so that they will be used longer than the years which it took to grow and be treasured as furniture, the tools of life.


Furniture made from Domestic Wood




Use domestic wood, protect the forests

With approximately 70% of its land covered by forest, Japan is one of the world’s largest forest countries, a naturally abundant country with a great variety of broad-leaf plants such as cherry, chestnut, maple, walnut, and beech and conifers such as Japanese cypress, cedar, and pine.

Meanwhile, Japan has only about 20% in self-sufficiency rate of timber and more and more forests are being left abandoned…devastated. The Japanese have an inherent relationship with forests and nature and have lived in affluence for generations together with satoyama (an area between the hills and flatland, roughly translating to ‘countryside’ in English.)

WISE·WISE will use domestic wood in order to drastically decrease wood miles (shipping energy) and use various techniques and ideas to make use of the forest’s blessings without waste; to protect forests and to breathe life back into the forest’s vanishing circulation.


SATOYAMA




Furniture made from Japanese “Chestnut”

Chestnut trees, known for their relatively rapid growth and durability, have been used in many aspects of our lives since the past including architecture, construction, furniture, farm tools, and crossties.
Its fruit that ripens in early autumn are familiar delicacies of the season and the relationship between the Japanese and chestnuts can be traced back to the Jomon period.
Chestnut trees planted on the slopes of mountains situated next to settlements were taken care of and used continuously to preserve the forest’s cycle.
We have designed furniture using this Japanese wood in our hope to preserve the forest’s cycle which is starting to become a dream of the past.
Many trees grow in a forest. Not all of them are the big straight trees adequate for furniture. Many trees are scraggly trees or trees with knots and warps that limits its application. The technologies applied to the plywood used in the SATOYAMA Series makes up for the weaknesses of this “unfit” wood and instead, seeks out the superior capabilities that they hold inside.
The essential strengths of thin crooked trees are drawn out through wisdom and technology. The strengths of grand honest trees are used as is without applying any extra work.
Our mission is to take the blessings of the forest bestowed upon us and use them without waste through the help of technology and ideas.


A System that Brings FSC, Forest Preservation and its Use to Life




Adequately managing the forest, creating products that use wooden materials produced from such forests, distributing those products, and delivering them to consumers. This is what the “forest certification” is all about. It oversees the adequate management of forests and certifies products made from them.

FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) is one of three organizations establishing an international forest certification system in an aim to promote sustainable forest management that is adequate in terms of environmental preservation, social benefit, and economic sustainability. The FSC forest certification system uses a reliable system to assess whether forest management and logging is carried out with consideration to the environment in the local community and certifies only forests that have proven itself of doing so. Wooden materials and wooden products produced from such forests are distributed in the market, stamped with the original logo mark.

In other words, products with the FSC logo mark are environmentally conscious products that guarantee its forest of origin. Therefore, consumers, by choosing wood/ wooden products with the FSC logo mark, will support forestry with adequate management and thus contribute to the preservation of forests around the world.

The trademark of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) indicates that the wood used to make the product comes from a forest which is well managed according to strict environmental, social and economic standards. The forest of origin has been independently inspected and evaluated according to the principles and criteria for forest management agreed and approved by the Forest Stewardship Council. FSC is an international, non-profit association whose membership comprises environmental and social groups and progressive forestry and wood retail companies working in partnership to improve forest management worldwide.


FSC Forest Certified Product - “Silver beech” is FSC Wood.




The silver beech forest can be found near the small town of Tuatapere in the Southland Region, on the southernmost tip of New Zealand. The Southland Region is also the home of Fiordland National Park, New Zealand’s largest national park.
Silver beech forest is the forest in which the Maori tribe, the residents of Fiordland National Park, has been permitted to cut wood from in place of cutting the virgin forest.

The silver beech forest is a naturally regenerated forest (secondary forest) but it is also a precious home to many living creatures.

Sustainable forest management (FSC Certified) is being carried out in this forest for animals and humans so that man too can receive the bounties of the forest well into the future. When harvesting wood, they are cut so that the sun will reach the ground.
Inside the dim silver beech forest where the crown is covered in leaves, young shoots grow from the silver beech seeds that drop to the ground.
Without light, seeds die before growing but proper logging will bring in the sunshine, helping the seed to grow into a grand tree.