TABUCHI

KYOHEI TABUCHI / NOT YOUR ORDINARY STONE GUY

STONE.
WHAT IF?

I split it, carry it, sometimes even wear it.
I am a stone guy who keeps asking what else it could become.

Kyohei Tabuchi looking up, dressed in stone-pattern clothing

CLICK A STONE

There is an idea inside.09 STONES / 09 IDEAS

Kyohei TabuchiTABUCHI / AJI, JAPAN

MY STORY

WHAT KIND OF STONE GUY?

Not just which stone.
What we could do with it.

Kyohei Tabuchi seated cross-legged on an Aji stone, with his hand on his chin

I am Kyohei Tabuchi of TABUCHI, based in Aji, Kagawa. My starting point is the quarry, but my work does not end at supplying stone. I look for ways to bring the character of a particular piece into a room, a piece of furniture or something we use every day.

A complete drawing is not the only place to start. A feeling, a use, or a thought that this room needs something different is enough. I want to be the person you ask when you are wondering what stone could do.

01 / BEFORE THE QUARRY

I used to be
a firefighter.

Different work. Something I want to carry forward.

Before working with stone, I was a firefighter with the Nagoya City Fire Department. The images of the Great East Japan Earthquake stayed with me and led me towards work protecting people and their lives.

I had always intended to return to the family quarry. But I did not want simply to take over what was already there. Alongside firefighting, I studied business development at graduate school, thinking about how the work could continue, then returned to Aji.

Now I want to carry forward the quarry, the skills of its craftspeople and the work this community has built. Finding new uses is my way of helping that work continue. Furniture, objects and fabric are different ways for people to discover stone—and reasons for its skills to remain needed.

Kyohei saluting in his firefighting uniform, shown without the surrounding room

02 / STONE IN MY EVERYDAY

This is how
I work with stone.

SELECT A WAY TO SEE MORE

Kyohei in stone-pattern clothing, holding a stone wrapped in rope
20 kg

Stones come to meetings.

Sometimes I bring 10–20 stones, weighing around 20 kg in total. Before a presentation, I want people to feel their weight and surface. That is where the conversation begins.

Stone, in a space.

LIFE WITH STONE

Even at our wedding,
we opened a stone.

A very stone-guy kind of celebration.

My wife’s family home is in Mie. With her family and friends coming to our wedding in Kagawa, I wanted them to see what kind of guy she was marrying.

So, instead of cutting a wedding cake, we opened an Aji stone together. We held a hammer together and tapped the wedges. The stone I work with in the mountain was at the heart of our celebration, too.

We took our pre-wedding photographs at the quarry we manage, too. For me, stone is not only work. It belongs in life’s milestones, and in the everyday. That is how I like to live with it.

Kyohei and his wife in wedding attire, holding a hammer together above an Aji stone set with wedges
Instead of cutting a cake, we opened a stone.
WATCH THE MOMENTThe moment we opened a stone, captured on video.
Kyohei and his wife posing for their pre-wedding photograph in front of the quarry’s rock face
Our pre-wedding photographs, at the quarry we manage.

03 / WHY I KEEP MAKING

Someone found it interesting.
So I made the next thing.

Kyohei speaking at a microphone in stone-pattern clothing, holding a stone wrapped in rope

I did not start out knowing everything about stone. I began making small things and showing them to people. Their curiosity, and requests for what I might make next, changed how I saw my own material.

A table, a ring, a fabric: these ideas began with people, not a catalogue. I am curious about what stone can become in someone else’s life. That is why I want to hear what you are imagining.

04 / IDEAS NEED HANDS

I cannot make it
all on my own.

Five members of the quarry team standing together beneath the rock face

Working stone myself has taught me how much skill each process takes. Quarrying, cutting, shaping and finishing each have their specialists. My role is to connect an idea with the right stone and the people who can work it.

A free-thinking idea also needs to consider weight, dimensions, how it is made and where it will go. Keep the character of the stone, while working out how to use it. I want to bring imagination and practical conversation together.

From the quarry to a space

05 / THE NEXT STONE AGE

Stone travels out.
People come to Aji.

The future I want to work towards is one where stone reaches more places, and people come back to its source. They meet craftspeople, discover the mountain and experience stone as part of daily life. I want to create reasons to visit Aji, not simply send its products out.

A new Stone Age, to me, means living naturally with stone again. TABUCHI is where I put that idea into practice, one encounter at a time.

A world map with orange routes carrying stone out from Aji, Japan, and green dashed routes bringing people back to Aji

AJI, KAGAWA / JAPAN

Stone, from Aji to the worldPeople, from the world to Aji
The future I want to build.

ANOTHER STONE, ANOTHER IDEA.

I have a few more
ideas in stone.

LET’S MAKE THE NEXT STONE AGE.

An unusual idea?
You have my attention.

No shape yet? Good. We can work it out with the stone and the people who know how to shape it.

Talk stone with KyoheiKYOHEI TABUCHI / TABUCHI, AJI JAPAN