Something beautiful to behold, it will not leak

It is a bucket of beautiful form. Only made of two materials: the wood of sawara cypress trees from Kiso in Nagano, and the nickel silver lines around the curves. Time passes when contemplating the beauty of this bucket. Oke-ei (full name Oke-ei Kawamata Co.) was established in the downtown Fukagawa area of Tokyo in 1887. Founder of the company, Shinemon Kawamata was known to Tokyo restaurants for the beauty in form and the durability of his meshibitsu cooked rice containers, and for all of his oke wood buckets. In this period oke buckets had many applications and styles: to use in baths, to contain sushi rice, as pails for transport, for cooked rice and as barrels. The ‘yuiokeshi’ craftspeople who made them often developed specialism in one area. The ohitsu rice containers of Edo, unlike elsewhere, had lids and were known as Edobitsu. The makers of this variant, needed the skill to fit the lid perfectly to the container beneath. For this reason Edo yuiokeshi were known to be the best. The current fourth generation leader of his family’s company, Eifu Kawamata retain’s the skills of Edobitsu, and to reproduce the aesthetic of the ages. The entire production process is completed by one person, beginning with the cutting of a 300 year old Kiso sawara cypress, to the fine work with a special ‘kure’ hatchet. To adapt the all-purpose oke bucket to contemporary lifestyles, the company has developed products such as wine coolers. Unchanged is the company’s dedication to quality. The oke made are beautiful to contemplate, and practical to use.

Okeeikawamata Co.,Ltd.
6-10 1F,Senda,Koto-ku,Tokyo 135ｰ0013
Tel:+81-3-5683-7838
Fax:+81-3-5683-7838
Eifu Kawamata
okeeikawamata@gmail.com
http://okeei.jp/