In tandem with the release of Chowa’s first design object, Terasu, was its first residential shoot: photographed by Miki Takashima in the esteemed Raymond Farm Center for Living Arts & Design, New Hope, PA.

The Raymond Center's authenticity is felt from the moment one steps inside: with its construction telling the story of Antonin Raymond’s travels and admiration for Japan. Raymond successfully bridged these interests with the sensibility of rural America, seamlessly. Given its resonance with Chowa’s own understanding of harmony, it is a great honor for it to be Terasu's home for the day.

Antonin Raymond was a Czech-American architect who lived and worked in New York City, Tokyo, and New Hope from the 1910s through the mid-1970s. Noémi Raymond was a painter, sculptor, illustrator, and textile designer.

A pupil of Frank Lloyd Wright’s, and later the mentor of George Nakashima himself, Raymond’s design philosophy bridged cultures, demonstrating how advanced modernism, then not yet widely accepted, could be merged with Japanese tradition. His self-created Tokyo home was the first modernist concrete house in Japan.

Attracted by the sturdy construction of the Quaker farmhouse and bank barn, Noémi and Antonin purchased the 120 acre farm in 1938. They then modified the American farmhouse with Japanese elements: creating a harmonic environment that gently sways between east and west. 

The shoot’s inception traces back to Yudai Kanayama and founder Ray Suzuki’s visit to the Nakashima estate, where they were recommended to visit the Raymond Center. They then emailed and arranged to travel to the center. Having recently connected with Mira Nakashima, Kanayama and Suzuki were excited to visit: it was more than fulfilling to learn of and admire the historical sites in America that feel close to the heart of Chowa: where elements of Japan and the US have lived in balance for some time, and are possibly some of the first examples of the combination. 

Kanayama explains, “We parked our car outside the farmhouse, questioning ourselves… ‘...did we come to the wrong place? Where is this beautiful Japanese inspired house?’ We walked around the property with chickens everywhere, and horses hanging around… Then she comes outside the house, Charlotte Raymond…” Upon entering, Kanayama discovered how authentic Japanese elements were integrated inside the unassuming farmhouse, describing that “We then explained what we do, whilst making sure to show great respect to her grandparents and their work.”

The estate is a private space, with little documentation, so shooting Terasu there was a special opportunity that the team didn’t take lightly. Upon first sight of the property's full interior, they knew it would be the ideal location for the lamp to reside. The American farmhouse contains countless authentic, traditional Japanese elements - with some of them crafted in Kyoto as designed by 吉村 順三 Junzō Yoshimura.

YK: “By the time she finished showing us around, our impression was that she was a really kind and beautiful farmer. We left happily, and she looked very happy to have met us also. ” 

The Chowa team were then kindly invited back to shoot Terasu in the New Hope residence, where it was instantly at home: with its clean lines strongly resonating with the interior’s Japanese-American identity.

YK: “The place really feels like a home, a farm... I felt a personal connection with Charlotte Raymond. She is just such a kind person. We now are friends, and we were invited to do the dinner party for them and keep going back ever since. We felt really welcomed.” 

In the farm's interior, Terasu sat amongst objects from Japan and the US alike, reflecting the energy of the two worlds that reverberates from the bi-cultural architecture of the farm.

In the farm’s single bedroom, the Tersasu lamp sits across from an Akari lamp, left at the house by Isamu Noguchi himself after being a guest. For the Chowa team, this was the first glimpse of Terasu making itself comfortable in different rooms of a home: and it confirmed the supposition that it was able to do so, with ease.

Thank you to Charlotte Raymond, Miki Takashima, and Yudai Kanayama.