Tendo Mokko

Heritage

Tendo Mokko was founded on 12 June 1940 in Tendo, Yamagata Prefecture — a town long known for woodworking and for the shogi (Japanese chess) pieces it produced. The company began using moulded plywood in 1947, right after the Second World War, and was one of the first companies in Japan to put formed plywood to practical use for mass-producing good-quality furniture.

Philosophy

Tendo describes its ideal piece as a family asset that parents will want to pass on to their children. It builds that around four qualities: graceful strength (supple plywood that absorbs impact), beauty, lightness and a pleasant texture — most furniture is painted and polished four to eight times, and Tendo does more. Timber such as walnut, rosewood, oak, sapele and white beech is dried naturally for one to five years, and every pressing is done by hand. More recently it has developed a compaction technique to make furniture from soft domestic conifers such as cedar and Japanese cypress.

Iconic Works

Tendo has worked with designers and architects including Isamu Kenmochi, Sori Yanagi, Riki Watanabe, Daisaku Cho, Katsuhei Toyoguchi, Kenzo Tange, Bruno Mathsson and Arata Isozaki. Its best-known piece is Sori Yanagi's Butterfly Stool (1956); the S-5226 rocking chair is formed from a single piece of plywood apart from its armrests.

Today

Tendo makes furniture for homes and the contract market, curved-plywood furniture and wooden interior parts for automobiles in its Tendo factory. It has showrooms in Tendo, Tokyo and Osaka, an official online store, and holds FSC®-CoC, PEFC/SGEC-CoC and ISO 9001 certification.