A place where you can find a rich and comfortable life in Mukojima, Onomichi.

This is a series of interviews with HAA dealers. This time, we would like to introduce "so_haku__" (hereafter, Sohaku), a gallery dealing in beautiful vessels and tools for daily life, located in Mukojima, Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture.  

The person we spoke with was Saki Nakao, who runs Sobaku. In fact, she is someone who has a close relationship with HAA, as she helped us create the HAA brand concept.

It was on a full moon day last summer that Saki opened Sobaku.

Opened on Mukojima Island in the Seto Inland Sea on a full moon day.

The Seto Inland Sea with its gentle waves.
The scenery, which makes you want to take a deep breath, calms people's hearts and attracts visitors.
Of all the islands scattered throughout the Seto Inland Sea, Mukojima is located closest to the mainland side of Onomichi. Take the Onomichi ferry from the Onomichi boat pier, and you will arrive at the island in about 5 minutes. Walking for about 10 minutes, feeling the scent of the sea, you will find Sobaku on the second floor of a building marked by a small signboard.

"Sohaku opened on July 14, 2022. It is a gallery that mainly deals with beautiful vessels and tools for daily life created by artists, and it is also an atelier that pursues things that enrich people's lives by hosting tea ceremonies and workshops.

"We opened on the full moon because we want to be in harmony with nature. Our main business days are determined by the day of the week, but we still value the cycles of nature, including the lunar calendar (phases of the moon), as we still do today, such as determining the dates of events with an awareness of celestial flow and the 24 solar terms."

A place where you can find an opportunity to live a rich life

A place where you can find the opportunity for a rich life Saki says that when she was a student, she studied store design and building interior design. From that time on, I had always thought that I wanted to have my own hako in the future. However, she did not have a concrete image in mind from the beginning.

How should it be?

"I was just trying to create a concept of what it should be like. I was always searching for what I could actually do and what I should be to society.

"I will create a complex facility that can be done on my own scale, and research things to enrich people's lives there. Sobaku is a gallery, a studio, and a laboratory. We hope that something you sense here will be applied to your own enriched lifestyle.

Sobaku is a place created through a dialogue with myself. He says that he places importance on having a careful dialogue with the things he handles and the people he works with.

They are also very careful about the things they handle and the people involved.

"If I was going to open a store, I wanted to carry things by artists that I had been collecting since I was a university student. However, although I understood the quality of the items after using them for many years, I wanted to dig a little deeper into the artist's thoughts and the process of making them. So, I visited the artists' studios and asked them about the environment and their thoughts on how they make their products.

"Then I realized that what I experienced when I used the product and what the creators had in mind were pretty much the same. I was able to reconfirm that there are no lies in each piece and that beautiful things are rooted in beautiful ideas.

Creating a place where people can feel what is important with all five senses

The experience of realizing the strength of sincerity and the absence of lies through dialogue between objects and people is also utilized in all aspects of Sobaku's placemaking.

We considered what we wanted to emphasize from various perspectives when creating this space and selecting objects. For example, from an environmental point of view, we used materials that breathe, such as plaster, for the walls instead of scientific paints. From an economic point of view, for example, we wondered if we could increase the number of people who could afford mugs made by artists, which are many times more expensive than cups that can be purchased at 100-yen stores. In order for people who earnestly make things to live healthy lives, we need more people who can spend their money in such areas. It may sound too dramatic to talk about the survival of traditional industries or the creation of local communities, but we need people who can find and convey the appeal of the good things that remain in local communities to the future.

 From various perspectives, I really hope that a good cycle will be created in the world. I hope that Soshiro will be a place where everyone can become aware of this.

"The events and workshops held here are also based on the hope that they will be the first step for people to feel good about themselves and that they will play a lubricating role in helping people achieve a state of mind and body without stagnation. I understand that money and management are important, but I don't think it's right to put the idea of "we do it because it makes money" at the top of the list.

By coming to this place, there are many things that can be conveyed without having to speak. Saki says that this is the moment when she feels happy to have created Hako.

Visitors to Sobaku feel comfortable and want to come back. Perhaps the reason for this is that Saki's honest and sincere attitude is conveyed throughout the entire space.

What is HAA time for you?

Saki faces the issue of a hearty life, both in real life and in her bare white face. At the end of the interview, we asked her about "HAA time," a time in her daily life when she can take a deep breath.

HAA time

"It's time for a cup of tea. Tea is easy to drink, just boil some water and drink it for a couple of minutes. Even if it is only for 5 or 10 minutes, I drink tea and relax. This is a daily habit that I have cherished for a long time.

"There is a girl who does counseling under the trade name grrrden (garden), combining phytotherapy and astrology. She also gives workshops at Sobaku, and she makes blended herbal teas for me that are good to drink now. She gave me a herbal tea called "Sleep Well Blend" and I drink it an hour or two before I go to bed. From there, I set a rule that I don't look at my phone, and it's like a ceremony to get to sleep. When I did that, the quality of my sleep went up by a surprising amount. I think it's very important to do things like that, like separating your on/off time, to make sure you're doing things right."

"I think it's very important to make sure you're doing things right.

Certainly, the way you feel and what you get out of it will be very different if you drink tea as if you were working while doing it, or if you cut out other things and face drinking tea.

However, even though we know this in our heads, many of us may tend to forget to take time for it in our busy lives. That is why it may be important to make time to look at yourself by attending a workshop or visiting a workshop to feel something.

Even in the midst of our busy lives, we want to live with a rich heart.

It may be a single vessel that triggers this, it may be words exchanged, or it may be the time itself that you spend visiting a space that you truly love.

When you go to Sobaku, you may encounter something like that.
This interview made me want to look at my current lifestyle with such excitement.

[Sohaku so_haku__]  

Location: 1011-1 Mukohigashi-machi, Onomichi-city, 2nd floor
Access: Take Onomichi ferry (Kanera ferry) to Mukojima and walk 10 minutes (2 private parking lots available)
Opening days: vary from month to month, please check from instagram
https://www.instagram.com/so_haku__

HAA items available at Bare White are here.

https://haajapan.com/products/haa-for-bath-kobako?so_haku__

In the next issue, we will report on the conversation between HAA representative Ikeda and Saki Nakao of Sohaku, including the story of the onsen training camp where the HAA concept was born, We also delve deeper into the process of brand creation.