Probably possible. Let's give it a try.

This time, we spoke with Mr. Reiwa Ikeda from Karimoku Furniture Inc.'s Marketing Center, New Business Development Department, who has handled the entire "BE@RBRICK Karimoku" series from its inception to the present. First, he told us about Karimoku's history.

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IkedaKarimoku's official name is "Karimoku Furniture Inc." (though it's actually a group of companies, and Karimoku Furniture is one of them). It's a wooden furniture manufacturer. The group has five manufacturing plants in Aichi and Gifu prefectures, three material plants in Akita, Hokkaido, and Malaysia, and operates 28 sales offices, 26 showrooms, and 3 outlets in Japan, making it Japan's largest wooden furniture manufacturer. We offer a comprehensive range of furniture products, including dining tables, sofas, living tables, beds, wardrobes, and TV boards.

However, we have never produced wedding furniture. As we are a company based in Aichi Prefecture, people often mistakenly assume, "You must have made a lot of money from wedding chests back in the day, right?" (laughs).

At that time, Japanese life was still centered around floor seating with zabuton cushions and low tables. However, anticipating a future where people would sit on higher chairs, similar to Western furniture, we adapted the overseas designs to suit Japanese body types and housing, refining them. In 1962, we began producing and selling domestic furniture as our own brand, marking the full-scale operation of wooden furniture production for the domestic market.

As a side note, fans may know that the manga "Tsurumoku Dokushinryo" (1988-1991, serialized in Big Comic Spirits) by Eisaku Kubonouchi, known for his work on Cup Noodle commercials, is modeled after Karimoku Furniture, where Kubonouchi worked before his debut. The factory scenes in the manga are depicted accurately, and some characters are said to be based on actual employees from that era.

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The "K Chair," an early Karimoku model developed in 1962 as our own product, has undergone continuous improvements and remains a signature long-selling item of the "Karimoku60" brand, still in production today. Furthermore, "Karimoku New Standard," launched to establish a new standard in Japanese furniture design, utilizes small-diameter domestic hardwoods such as maple, chestnut, and oak, which were previously underutilized, contributing to forest conservation and the revitalization of forestry regions.

So, what led Karimoku, a furniture manufacturer, to join forces with Medicom Toy and create wooden BE@RBRICKs? The encounter dates back 14 years, to 2005.

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IkedaThe Marketing Center, where I belong, is the development section. We have about 30 in-house designers who create various products like sofas and tables. Within that, the New Business Development Department is a somewhat specialized division that focuses on utilizing underused wood resources beneficially and creating new business possibilities from scratch. Therefore, we actively consider initiatives that might not emerge solely within the company, such as exploring ideas like "it would be interesting to make this out of wood" through discussions with external parties.

Our first encounter with Medicom Toy was in 2005. At that time, I was in the planning and development department, and we received a proposal asking for our cooperation in launching a new brand calledFABRICK, which would focus on original textiles. When asked what we could offer, they replied, "We want to make furniture. We're interested in fabric-based furniture like sofas, and we'd like to use Karimoku's products for the wooden parts." We agreed to cooperate.

At that time, Medicom Toy provided us with various sample figures as references for their company's work, including a plastic 400% BE@RBRICK. We wanted to expand the application of woodworking techniques and return to the fundamentals of woodworking, free from inertia and constraints. We decided to challenge ourselves by creating a wooden BE@RBRICK that demanded extreme precision. Honestly, I personally didn't think our company could handle such a three-dimensional object, but the craftsmen said, "Probably possible. Let's give it a try."

We didn't have 3D scanners back then, so we attached gauges to our existing machinery, collected shape data by shifting them by millimeters, and created the design data. Of course, the precision wasn't as high as current products, but we managed to create a beautiful form.

A while later, Medicom Toy invited us to the exhibition for "FABRICK" at a small gallery in Ochanomizu, Tokyo. Our department leader suggested, "Why don't we take this and show it to everyone at the exhibition?" So, we spontaneously displayed it at the venue.

The media gathered there were all surprised, exclaiming, "What is this!?" We were concerned that the reaction was perhaps too strong and thought we should probably put it away. Then, President Akashi arrived. We expected him to be angry, but he was very pleased with it. After the exhibition, some time passed, and President Akashi contacted us to ask if it was truly possible to produce wooden BE@RBRICKs. We felt it was indeed fortunate that we were able to showcase what we could do with wood at that exhibition.

Page02.Additive Design, Subtractive Design

Additive Design, Subtractive Design

In 2004, Medicom Toy held an exhibition titled "BE@RBRICK WORLD WIDE TOUR," showcasing 1000% BE@RBRICKs customized by creators from Japan and abroad. Among the participating artists wasKAWS, who was gaining attention from trendsetters for his work as a graffiti artist.

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Walnut wood has a slightly amber hue, a deep richness, and dark brown grain. We believed KAWS was aiming for this specific aesthetic, so Karimoku reproduced it as faithfully as possible.

There were many challenges to overcome during the completion process, but we'll discuss those after you've seen the actual manufacturing process (see below). It remains a deeply memorable piece as the first BE@RBRICK produced by Karimoku.

and various other projects.

We also created wooden figures of "COMPANION" with KAWS in 2011 and "Pinocchio" in 2018.

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The collaboration between Karimoku and Medicom Toy began with KAWS's BE@RBRICK. Wooden furniture and plastic figures – different materials necessitate entirely different manufacturing methods.

Designs that add where needed and remove where excess are "additive designs."
Conversely, designs that carve shapes from a block of wood, like furniture, are "subtractive designs."

With subtractive designs, the processing speed and quality of the finished product can vary significantly depending on the method. For wood, expertise and skill are required in every aspect, from material selection to fine detailing, as Mr. Ikeda explains.

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IkedaNow, we will guide you through the actual production process. Today, we will show you the machining process for a new model in the Karimoku Wood Series: the "BE@RBRICK Karimoku OVANGKOL 400%."

The Karimoku Wood Series features BE@RBRICKs made from rare woods from around the world. It began in 2017 with PADAUK, followed by WENGE, SAPELE, IROKO, MAPLE, and PAO ROSA.

Each wood species has its own characteristics. For example, Pau Rosa is a very hard and dense wood, said to sink in water. It's so hard that it can chip the blades of our machinery during processing. Maple is widely known in Japan, but for the Karimoku Wood Series, we use the rarer curly maple with "moku" (figure). While regular maple has a plain surface pattern, "moku" is a rare occurrence, said to appear in only one out of thousands or tens of thousands of trees due to genetic factors.

The OVANGKOL featured in this model is a hard and durable wood native to West Africa, also used as a substitute for rosewood in Europe. It has a unique color, but it is not artificially colored. We apply a transparent urethane coating, the same as used on our furniture, to the wood itself.

Now, we will guide you into the factory. Please take your time to observe how the BE@RBRICKs are born. (To be continued)

• Continued in Part 2