MUJI is designed to seamlessly integrate into our daily lives, continuously revisiting the essence of necessities, stripping away excess, and constantly evolving to craft the fundamentals of living. A key characteristic of MUJI products—born from this thoughtful design process—is the versatility they offer to users, allowing them to adapt the products to their needs. MUJI’s PP File Boxes are typically assumed to be for organizing documents and papers, yet their streamlined and simple design allows them to be reimagined for use in kitchen cabinets, cleaning closets, and more. The MUJI Schedule Notebook can serve as a diary or a planner, adaptable to the layout needed. These products, like many others crafted with MUJI’s innovative spirit, invite a variety of uses based on our customers’ perspectives and provide freedom and joy in everyday life.

This concept of blank spaces can be likened to the concept of mitate. The idea of mitate encompasses various interpretations: it involves selecting, discerning and reimagining. This technique is beautifully demonstrated in traditional Japanese aesthetics such as karesansui (dry landscape gardens), mitate-e (thematic paintings), and in rakugo (traditional Japanese storytelling), where fans and tenugui(handkerchiefs) are transformed into versatile props. It’s like seeing a vast night sky within the confines of a bowl of soba during Tsukimi (the Moon Viewing Festival)—a moment that becomes a canvas for imagination. Within Japanese culture and everyday life, we can see glimpses of the charm and playfulness inherent in the concept of mitate.

Through the design process of MUJI, we invite this concept of mitate into our products. The small MUJI exhibition features the work of Tatsuya Tanaka, a miniature photographer renowned for his mitate artistry. Tanaka transforms MUJI products into representations of varied life scenes in this exhibition through a shift in perspective, weaving together a tapestry of life imbued with creativity, whimsy, and humor. Each humorous scene paints a vivid world that delights audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

The small MUJI exhibition features 16 original miniature works, alongside new pieces inspired by the region and seasons of the host city. This exhibition, hosted at the MUJI flagship store in NYC, will include scenes modeled after New York’s iconic landmarks that greet you as you journey through this miniature universe. Mitate illuminates the diverse world of objects and daily life with an unrestrained spirit of play. We invite you to fully enjoy this exhibition and immerse yourself in the world of MUJI.

My Creation Process and MUJI

When brainstorming ideas for my creations, I aim to find motifs in the shapes of objects that are commonplace and familiar to all. In this regard, MUJI products harmonize well with my artwork. Furthermore, I utilize MUJI’s items to organize my expansive and continuously growing collection of materials. Their stackable, connectable, and interchangeable storage options facilitate easy expansion to match the increase in materials. This scalable adaptability bears a striking resemblance to the way I arrange and connect the ideas for my creations.

Tatsuya Tanaka