Nakatsu Furniture (Nakatsu, Oita Prefecture) Jitsuo Nagaoka

Nagaoka operates the family business, Nakatsu Furniture, which has long been selling brand-name furniture and interior furnishings in Japan and abroad. He is hoping to make his hometown of Nakatsu a center for design by creating new brands in collaboration with first-rate artisans like Hiroto Rakusho and others in Japan and other countries and by running a design project that has attracted students and young designers.
While apprenticing as a furniture maker in Denmark, Nagaoka also worked as a furniture deliveryman, making more than ten deliveries a day. Intent on researching European interior design and living styles, he took the opportunity to photograph the homes and businesses to which he made deliveries. His experience of living and breathing Western design inspired him to create a business linking Japan and other countries through furniture.
At Happo-en, he exhibits a modern kitchen using gold leaf, created in collaboration with gold leaf artist Hiroto Rakusho.