This day we went to Kazuto Kobayashi’s grocery store in Kichijoji, Tokyo OUTBOUND, looking at the light, shadow and wood grain in a room, setting off the selection of this low-key and quiet godfather of daily necessities.The name Selection Shop is spread all over the world, and everyone talks about the style of selection. When traveling, they always visit a local selection store. Gradually, these so-called beautiful selected objects feel monotonous and dazzling, and their vision becomes increasingly empty.Over the years, from the first Roundabout to the second store OUTBOUND, Kobayashi Kazuto has continued to explore the relationship between daily utensils and life, looking for the innate sensibility of human nature in a world that excessively pursues design.and warmth, allowing us to find true satisfaction in objects.
Text: Liang Jingwen / Photography: Ivy Chen
Regarding the background of Kazuto Kobayashi, most people who like Japan, groceries and shopping stores know about it.Born in Tokyo in 1975, he lived in Australia and Singapore during his childhood. After graduating from university in 1999, he chose Kichijoji to sell practical and design groceries from the East and West under the name Roundabout. In 2008In 2008, he opened a store called OUTBOUND, which selected items that he didn’t know how to define, but could produce spiritual changes in people. They were not necessarily practical or functional, but they changed with the passage of time and the people who used them.Enriching life and soul.This interview naturally turned to a topic that Mr. Kobayashi has been deeply attracted to and focused on sharing in recent years -Function and role。
Can you please share your selections from OUTBOUND?
The function of abstraction you describe is actually？
Many people consider these to be works of art. But the creator himself does not feel that he is creating art, but rather a prop. When they touch a certain material and get inspiration, the material talks to the soul, feels its charm and characteristics, and allows it to reach its best state.There is no deliberately set purpose, and the exploration is extended during the contact process, and the appearance and shape are created through accidents and experiments.It has no functionality but brings shock and throbbing. When you put it in your hand, you will feel another chemical effect. This is the abstract effect in my eyes.
I was exploring this matter a while ago. I went to the Kokugakuin University Museum to see an exhibition and see what the antiquities left by ancient people were. Is it a work of art? Is it a man’s genitals? Are you asking for a divine artifact?Later it was discovered that ancient things had this undefinable function. Ancestors also used objects that had no actual function, but brought a healing power to deeply explore the desires of human beings.
So in OUTBOUND, you may connect with the memory and want to collect it because of the sound it makes or its texture.It looks like an ordinary stone on the seaside, but it is made by a skilled craftsman with a natural and pure emotional resonance;A very rough pot, but with a primitive sense of intimacy, it is easy for people to get close to it, transcending form and function, and entering into another concept of product selection.
I don't have much interest in the definition of beauty.
Indeed, in an era of material abundance and overproduction, Mr. Kobayashi constantly reminded us to think about what kind of items we should live with.Famous brand, high-end, gorgeous things look great but cannot be integrated into life. Objects fill the house but do not bring comfortable feelings. He said he never chooses products because of the designer's reputation, or makes the store too perfect.Whenever someone praises his store for being beautiful, he is very conflicted because he is not very interested in the definition of beauty. “What is ugly in other people’s eyes may be beautiful in your eyes. Everyone’s interpretation of beauty is different.Sometimes beauty can only be seen in a dirty state, just like there is light and shadow, it is very interesting to review the creation of intersection. The urine corrodes the copper plate in different ways, and that's beautiful to me too. "
Utensils are media that take you back to the time and space memories you want to remember.
Looking back, I didn’t think too much about it when I first opened the store. After many interviews, I slowly clarified the functions of the two stores. Roundabout is the function, and OUTBOUND is the function.OUTBOUND regularly holds exhibition planning. For example, he previously invited creators Koji Kumagai, Kyoko Tozawa, and Ryo Watanabe to hold an exhibition together in Kanazawa. Between utensils and non- utensils, bags and non-bags, or broadly speaking, ignoring props and modeling objects.Differently, it expresses the existence state of the "purpose" of "item production"."The earthenware of Koji Kumagai is made of piled earth, ground and fired layer by layer at a low temperature. It has a different kind of beauty without glaze. Once a customer asked to buy unglazed pottery, and Mr. Kumagai explained that water would penetrate in this way.Later I found out that this guest was born in India. He didn’t buy this vessel to hold dishes, but to connect with his past memories and place it around him to get close to the primitive earth feeling and take himself back to that time and space.Mr. Kobayashi suddenly realized at that moment that utensils are media, taking you back to the time and space memories you want to remember. Plate not only holds food, but also takes you to far places. Everything always depends on the person who uses it.
I hope that the store will always exist like this, with the new and the old, Japan and overseas, functions and functions coexisting harmoniously, because the core of a person will not change easily.
When he was a child, he lived in Australia and Singapore. Kazuto Kobayashi also described the sensory memories of the sights, smells and sights he had seen, which were like deep-rooted rivers, staying deep in his heart and flowing in his blood.“Sometimes the seasons change unintentionally, and the smell of gas at gas stations and the smell of asphalt roads will bring my thoughts to the gas stations in Melbourne."It has been 18 years since he opened a store. He never thought that opening a store would become a lifelong career. From anonymous design objects produced by machines to hand-made objects full of soul, his conception of life objects may have been changing, but the only thing that remains unchanged is that his choiceThe spirit of things - just like the description of folk art by Yanagi Sori, who had a profound influence on him: "In today's era of loss of human touch, the warm human feelings and primitive purity exuded by folk art can bring very strong resonance to modern people, and at the same time they can feel the longing for the past."His selection of items is still as the meaning of the name Roundabout, and the space has been circulated and shared. "I hope the store will always exist like this, with new and old, Japanese and overseas, functions and functions coexisting harmoniously.The core of being a human being is that it does not change easily."