The divine landscape of galleries and boutiques in Kyoto just got dreamier with the launch of Kaji Gallery, an art space and tea room in the heart of the ancient city. Outfitted by Ukrainian architect and designer Serhii Makhno and his eponymous studio, the two-storey gallery is a meditative environment that expresses Japanese aesthetic traditions with a contemporary sensibility.

Visitors enter via the leafy tea area with access to a green terrace and move into the main gallery, where walls have been applied with clay in the Ukrainian mazanka technique. The framework of the room is constructed from warm wood beams. They coordinate with rustic wood shelving that supports the ceramic vessels on show.

Wood furnishings offer seating around the sculptures and talismans, though some of the design components – like the 100kg PYL chairs and the multi-component Kvartz chair are crafted in ceramic. Sculptural ceramic shades on the pendant lighting integrate into the Japanese context.

A stairwell laced with greenery leads to the upper floor, where exhibition spaces have Tetrapod tiles, Makhno Studio’s own design. In the large lecture hall, Makhno reinterpreted the ancient principles of shoin-zukuri using bamboo, ceramics and rice paper. Each element, Makhno says, is designed to surprise and inspire, reflecting Japanese aesthetic principles like natural settings, restraint and the wabi-sabi philosophy.

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