I'm home

Mure-cho is situated 7km to the east of the center of Takamatsu city in Kagawa prefecture, located in the Shikoku district. Mure-cho's local product is Ajiishi(granite gravestone) which is a type of granite. Stone craftsman Masatoshi Izumi's workshop/　guesthouse and his residence, which use plenty of Ajiishi and wood, is in this town littered with many stone dealer shops. Izumi's 2 buildings are called "Izumiya" and are interesting spaces because they showcase the stone utility value in the Japanese housing market.
Izumi grew up surrounded by stone craftsmen and he started his rock-related work at the age of 15. While in his youth, Izumi consistently learned quarrying and processing techniques of stones, Alsp around his time, he encountered the Kagawa Prefecture Government Office Building designed by a prominent architect Kenzo Tange, representing Japan. At that time, he realized new possibilities in working with stones and learned that stones could be used for not only gravestones and garden lanterns but for other purposes as well. Izumi then set a goal to create a unique stone processing-style that would became his legacy. About at the same time, Izumi met the worldly famous sculptor Isamu Noguchi who visited Mure-cho searching for a good-quality stone. Izumi started to receive some work from Noguchi. Izumi's skill to pick up the artist's intentions and accurately shape the stones, supported Isamu's production of work for 25 succeeding years. Currently, Izumi participates in the projects of urban planning and hotels cooperating with other architects and designers from home and abroad, besides sculptures.
From long ago, Japanese religion has been closely tied to nature because it relates to the Japanese spirit of respecting and coexisting with nature. Through his work on the stone walls of castles and in the gardens of Zen temples, Izumi considers his role to be presenting unspoiled stones, thereby passing on Japanese validity to the next generation.

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