About us
SMOKE — Japanese-made clothing and things, Shimogamo, Kyoto
We select Japanese-made things for everyday life — clothing, ceramics, and tools — chosen for how they are made and how they hold up to use.
Things that earn their place.
1912 — Shimogamo, Kyoto
The shop stands at a five-way crossing in Shimogamo, in a kanban-kenchiku building from 1912.
Its pale green tile façade is dressed like a sign, the way Kyoto shopfronts once announced their trade. It was once a tobacco shop, from a time when tobacco licences went to corners where foot traffic met from several directions.
When I first passed it, I was not ready.
When I passed it again months later, it was still there.
That, I decided, was an answer.
The way we choose
Architecture taught me to look closely at what holds: where material carries weight, where a detail has a purpose, what can be removed without weakening the whole.
I bring the same attention to everything at SMOKE. Before how something looks, we look at who makes it, what it is made of, and how it holds up to daily use. Not because everything needs to be perfect, but because everything we live with should have a reason to be there.
Inside the shop, one wall is lime yellow. The things we carry are quiet. The wall is there to frame them, the way good light reveals what it touches.
Mot A.
Owner, licensed architect (Ikkyu Kenchikushi)
The first piece: kitt
kitt is why SMOKE began.
It is knit in Wakayama at Daiei Knitting Industry, a mill run by my wife's family, on vintage circular knitting machines kept running since the 1970s. They are maintained not for nostalgia, but because they create a fabric that modern production cannot easily reproduce.
Light. Soft. Resilient.
Made to be worn, washed, and worn again.
What convinced me was not only how the fabric was made.
During a time when her health was fragile, my wife said:
"I don't want to wear anything else. Only kitt."
In that moment, clothing became something closer to architecture: a structure that protects the body and steadies the mind.
As kitt's officially recognized showroom in Kyoto, we carry the collection in person.
Beyond kitt
The same way of choosing now reaches further.
Chêne, HIMARAYA LION, and other Japanese-made clothing, ceramics, and daily tools join the selection — each chosen for how it is made, and how it holds up to use.
This corner became a shop.
The machines in Wakayama began their long working life.
We keep choosing things made to live with.
Visit SMOKE
5-4 Shimogamo Nishihonmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-0826, Japan 〒606-0826 京都市左京区下鴨西本町5-4We are not on Google Maps. Please find us by the address above.
Opening days are posted on the calendar on our Instagram. Visits by appointment are also welcome — send us a DM on Instagram.
Every order is packed at the shop and shipped from Kyoto. Questions? The owner replies personally.