Usagi, the Japanese lifestyle gallery and retail boutique founded by Sakamaki Tsukasa, has opened its first shop in Hong Kong.
The Usagi Hong Kong store, located in Wah Shin House, on Shin Hing St, Central, joins boutiques in Paris and New York in a steadily growing chain of international showcase stores.

 
Tsukasa mixes art, workshops and retail in the concept to “inject creativity into the commonplace”.
 
“We believe that the consumer market in Asia is in high growth, and Hong Kong and Japan are two of the earliest places to merge Eastern and Western cultures in developing their economy,” says Masa Otsuka, Usagi’s Asia-Pacific regional director.
 
Visitors to the store will find lifestyle products previously hard to locate in Hong Kong, such as the traditional Musui Nabe cooking pot produced by Hiroshima Aluminium and an “instant dry bath mat” from Isurugi, made from a Japanese soil which absorbs and evaporates water quickly.

 
Since a soft opening in November, Usagi has expanded its product offer and commenced regular workshops on such skills as indigo dyeing.

 
Next month, Usagi will add a range of Japanese coffees to the store’s offer, and host a workshop.
“We will be offering a Japanese hand-drip coffee experience. Coffee has already become part of our daily lifestyle, but we want people to enjoy the beauty of Japanese hand-drip coffee,” explains Otsuka.