Maruni

Maruni Wood Industry is a furniture manufacturer in Hiroshima, Japan, where it was founded in 1928 by Takeo Yamanaka as Showa Mageki Kojo, the Showa Bentwood Factory. It mastered bentwood at a time when the technique was considered near impossible, and was renamed Maruni Wood Industry in 1933. The company describes its ambition then as industrialising craft skills: making furniture through a division of labour instead of relying on individual artisans.

Under the banner of Industrialized Craftsmanship, the company has worked since 2010 with Naoto Fukasawa as art director, joined by Jasper Morrison in 2011 and Cecilie Manz in 2022. The Hiroshima series, shown in Milan in 2009, is now distributed through 89 locations in 29 countries, and the collection includes Lightwood, Meguro, Shoto and T&O. Maruni states its aim as furniture recognised as a global standard a century from now.