Kyoto · JP

Kaoru Tamura

Kyoto based, third generation, and the stones still come from the dealers his grandfather used. Carving is what he is known for, but most weeks are somebody’s ring, and he will take yours wherever you want it to go.

BespokeRemodel

Making jewelry: 12 years
Credential: Third generation
City: Kyoto
Takes: Commissions, remodel

Jade tells you where it wants to be cut. You do not argue with it.

My grandfather opened this bench in 1961 and my father kept it. The tools on the wall are his, the stone dealers are the same three families, and the window still faces the same wall of the temple.

Most of what I make is carved: plaques, figures, pieces of a single stone worked until the light moves through it properly. That takes weeks and I will tell you honestly at the start how many.

Bring me the stone if you have one. If you do not, we will go and find it, and I will show you what is wrong with the ones I turn down.