Saito Wood

Saito Wood is a Japanese manufacturer of moulded plywood furniture based in Shizuoka. The company traces its history to 1948, when Isamu Saito opened a woodworking shop in Haibara, in the mountains of Shizuoka Prefecture; it moved to Shizuoka City in 1958 and took its present name when a domestic sales company was set up in 1966.

Its speciality is cylindrical moulded plywood, a technique in which thin veneers are glued, layered crosswise and pressed hot into a mould, giving light but strong shells with a characteristic curve. Saito applied the process to a canister set in 1956 and to the No.901 basket in 1959, a design still in production that helped build exports to the United States, followed by magazine racks, trays and trolleys. The same pieces are supplied to hotels, ryokan and restaurants in Japan.