ORUHA: Yuya Nakazawa’s sculptural chair, from award-winning prototype to limited edition

Conceived in the confined space of a shared studio in Shinjuku, the ORUHA chair has won ten international awards and been included in the Museum of Outstanding Design’s permanent collection. Hand-carved from maple and walnut using a Japanese plane, the ORUHA chair offers an intimate refuge within shared spaces. The Yedit studio is now opening a dedicated workshop and launching its first limited-edition production run.

A sanctuary in a shared space

Photographer Mitsuaki Takahashi, 2025

The ORUHA chair was designed for a specific purpose: to preserve a sense of privacy in shared spaces. The chair creates an enveloping enclave around the person sitting in it: a wooden presence that defines a space without closing it off. Described by Yuya Nakazawa as a personal sanctuary within a public space, it is a discreet shelter that the form suggests rather than imposes. The armrests, which are the parts of the chair that come into closest contact with the body, have sharp edges whilst offering a soft and secure grip. This tension between visual rigour and tactile comfort is what makes the piece so special. The expansive, generously curved surfaces capture and reveal every variation in light, so that the appearance of the chair changes as the hours pass and the viewing angle shifts.

From audiovisual editing to the art of planing

ORUHA Chair ; Mitsuaki Takahashi, 2025
Moving Image Editor Yuya Nakazawa, 2025
Soundtrack Composer Heitaro Ashibe, 2025

Before working with wood, Yuya Nakazawa spent many years editing advertising films and audiovisual productions. From this experience, he has adopted one approach: arranging individual sequences to create rhythm, continuity, and emotional progression. ORUHA transposes this principle into the material. The lines, proportions, and sequence of surfaces form a path for the eye to follow before the body settles into the chair. The designer worked with clay models and successive prototypes, shaping the form directly by hand rather than through drawing. The frame is carved from hard maple and the seat from walnut. Traditional Japanese joinery tools were used for the finishing, foremost among them the kanna, a plane whose passage determines the final smoothness of the solid wood.

Ten awards and a place in the museum

A’ Design Award & Competition

In less than two years, ORUHA has won ten international awards. In 2026, the A’ Design Award jury awarded it Gold in the Furniture Design category following a blind evaluation. The London International Creative Competition had previously honoured it with a Best in Category award. Further awards have been received in New York, Paris, London, Rome, Tokyo and across Asia. Beyond the competitions, the chair was included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Outstanding Design in Como and exhibited at the 40×40 Design Exhibition in New York. This recognition preceded any market launch: for a long time, ORUHA remained an exhibited and award-winning prototype, and the constraints of the shared workshop prevented its production, storage and dispatch.

A dedicated workshop for a limited edition

Photographer Mitsuaki Takahashi, 2025

In order to elevate the chair from prototype to production without compromising on the requirement for handcrafted quality, Yedit established a dedicated workshop in Shinjuku. This facility is designed to enable structured artisanal production in limited editions, where each piece retains the hand-finished quality of the original. To mark this milestone, the studio is opening a waiting list and launching promotional channels aimed at an international audience. No price has been announced at this stage. This approach raises a question that Yuya Nakazawa is willing to address: how can a creation recognised by a museum find its way into private and public interiors without losing its artisanal identity? At the same time, Yedit is preparing a new furniture collection based on the same design philosophy, combining visual rhythm with sculpted form.