Yatsuyanagi (八柳 角館) has made kabazaiku, the craft of mountain cherry bark, in Kakunodate, Akita, since 1876. The craft reached Kakunodate in the late 18th century, where samurai of the Satake domain first practised it as side work.

The bark is taken without felling the tree, dried in the shade for more than a year, then shaved and polished by hand until its natural lustre comes through. Cherry bark is often said to breathe, so a bark canister keeps tea dry and even without sealing it airtight, and unlike metal it never rusts. With each year of handling, its colour and sheen grow deeper.

We are drawn to Yatsuyanagi for the way it lets a natural material age in plain sight. A bark canister asks for nothing more than daily handling, and in return its colour slowly deepens, a quiet record of the years it has spent within reach.