On May 1st, artless Inc., headed by artist Shun Kawakami, will open a coffee stand and office in Harajuku, Tokyo, called "artless craft tea & coffee" (1F, 3-21-16 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo).

The store focuses on the word "craft." With the cooperation of Maruyama Coffee, the store offers carefully hand-dripped single-origin coffee, carefully selected for its country, climate, production background, and production methods from small-scale farms known as micromills and microlots. The store also offers hojicha, a type of roasted green tea that is similarly small-scale, organic, and pesticide-free, carefully grown by hand, for a truly "craft" feel. Brewing is done in a tea kettle crafted by a Living National Treasure and a Tokoname-yaki teapot. A mellow cup of coffee or hojicha, combining richly flavored organic milk, is also available.

The spatial design concept is a "tea room." A hearth has been carved into the 5m-wide counter made of a single sheet of iron, and a tea kettle placed inside, expressing the uniquely Japanese aesthetic of "wabi-sabi" and "the beauty of the unfinished." The tea utensils used are traditional Japanese crafts, including a tea caddy from Kyoto's Kaikado, a tea strainer from Kanazumi Tsuji, and a Shiraku flower vase made by Ogawa Hirotsugu, the eldest son of Ogawa Nagaraku III, a Raku ware maker.

Opening hours are from 10:30am to 7:30pm, and the restaurant is closed every Tuesday and Wednesday. (It is open on the 3rd and 4th during Golden Week.)