A Space Where Japanese Aesthetics Meet Modern Design

“artless craft tea & coffee” is a cafe adjacent to the office of artless, a branding agency headed by artist Shun Kawakami. Here, the focus is on the word "craft," with roasted green teas, kukicha from a long-established Kyoto tea purveyor, genmaicha, and kariban-cha—all organically grown and pesticide-free—carefully brewed in Tokoname kyusu teapots to the very last drop, maximizing their umami. It’s intriguing how Japanese tea can be enjoyed in a coffee stand style.

The coffee, in turn, is sourced from small-scale farms known as micro-mills and micro-lots, in collaboration with Maruyama Coffee. Each cup of "single origin coffee" is meticulously prepared using hand-drip.

Additionally, they incorporate rich organic milk, offering mellow blends of roasted green tea or coffee with milk.

The interior design takes inspiration from traditional tea rooms, utilizing larch plywood—a material typically used for architectural drawing boards, made by thinly slicing and bonding pine or similar wood into panels—in its raw form.

Furthermore, a hearth is carved into a 5-meter-wide, single-sheet iron counter, accommodating a kama (kama) teapot. This design fuses Japanese aesthetics like "wabi-sabi" and "imperfect beauty" with contemporary design.

The tools used are evolving Japanese traditional crafts, including tea canisters from Kaikado in Kyoto, tea strainers from Kanazawa Tsuji, and a white Raku ware flower vase by Hiroshi Ogawa, the eldest son of the third-generation Raku potter Chojiro Ogawa. The commitment to and consideration for the tools, akin to the spirit of the tea ceremony, is commendable.

artless craft tea & coffee
Hours | 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM (Wednesdays only 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM)
Closed | Tuesdays
Location | 3-21-16 Jingumae 1F, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo