I asked myself, "What can I do to convey the beauty of Ryukyu indigo and preserve this culture?" While the terms "culture" and "heritage" are often used easily in today's world, very few are truly committed to working on them from the ground up. Since the beginning of my craft, the word "culture" has been my core. When no one else is taking it seriously, I decided I would try to do it myself. I am often asked why someone in a position to design objects and spaces would focus on this in today's age. But I truly believe that now is the time to pursue it, and that this is where my next step lies. It all starts with cultivating indigo. I am working on creating the soil and experimenting with cultivation techniques. It takes time to connect this to the final products, but I believe that growing the raw materials myself is key to preserving Ryukyu indigo as part of Okinawa's traditional crafts. The unique texture and depth of the color, which cannot be expressed with synthetic dyes, is the color of Okinawan culture. We have named this special shade "RYUKYU BLUE."

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