Spotted on the amazing Spanky Stokes edited by my buddy and legendary toy blogger John "Spanky" Stokes is this wonderful post about the wooden take-g toys by Takegi Nakagawa. These toys are painstakingly made using the ancient Japanese craft of "Yosegi Mokuzougan" or joined wooden block construction. These are amazing. I especially like how he makes very modern robotic space designs using ancient techniques and materials.
"I often get asked 'Why do you make robots with wood?,'" says Nakagawa. "I don't really have an exact answer for it but I often relate my robots with 'future.'" For Nakagawa, the future isn't a place filled with metal and skyscrapers, but with trees. "I don't think humans can live without trees no matter what advances technology makes," he adds. "When I think of 'future,' I cannot help thinking of 'past' at the same time. Trees take a long time (tens and hundreds years) to grow and show us their beauty (the product of their past). I think that I have responsibilities as a craftsman and an artist of breathing new life into these trees. I have a job to link 100 years in the past and 100 years in the future through my work. These are my values toward my work."
via: Cool Hunting
