{"id":61679,"date":"2026-07-21T09:36:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T09:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/61679\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T09:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T09:36:22","slug":"tokyo-house-tour-furniture-makers-machida-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/61679\/","title":{"rendered":"Tokyo House Tour: Furniture Maker’s Machida Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rikiya Burioka spent years searching Tokyo for a place to build a house that would match the charm and character of the wooden furniture made by his company Mobley Works. He was ready to throw in the towel and settle for a new-build when, as is often the case in house-hunting, opportunity struck amid what seemed like a disaster. Burioka had just cancelled a holiday to the US due to his furniture factory catching fire when he received a call about a 1940s property going for a song. \u201cIt was meant to be,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Today the furniture maker and interior designer speaks of that time with more levity. Mobley Works has gone on to do good things, becoming globally coveted for its refined Japanese interpretation of US country-style furniture. And, as Burioka and wife Kazuko welcome us to their residence-cum-showroom in Tokyo\u2019s Machida city on a crisp day, it\u2019s clear that the property hunt panned out well too. \u201cI grew up near here; it\u2019s got the greatest concentration of greenery around Tokyo,\u201d says Burioka, pointing towards Oyamada Ryokuchi Park across the street. Machida city is a leafy suburb of Tokyo that is just under an hour away from central Shinjuku by train but offers a rare sense of countryside-living within the Japanese capital. \u201cIt\u2019s great living here. We can go for a run and also birdwatch; there are woodpeckers, owls and hawks around here,\u201d says Burioka.<\/p>\n

Situated on a hilly site laden with bamboo plants, the structure that the couple acquired in 2013 was old and odd. It was built in 1945 but had been renovated four times, which explains the multiple layers of roofs. \u201cProperties like this are so cheap [in Tokyo] because no agency is interested, as you can\u2019t build something new,\u201d says Burioka, noting that under the city\u2019s construction laws the owner could only renovate this house and not knock it down to rebuild. \u201cYou have to have a clear renovation idea \u2013 and guts \u2013 to buy something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KazukoKazuko Burioka\u2019s hut for baking<\/p>\n

\"RikiyaRikiya Burioka on the viewing deck<\/p>\n

\"DiningWarm wooden interior<\/p>\n

\"HallwaySoft glow<\/p>\n

\"LivingRikiya made almost all furniture<\/p>\n

\"AerialView from the wooden deck behind the house <\/p>\n

\"WoodenCosy corner<\/p>\n

\"ManBirdwatching <\/p>\n

\"ANicely aged red cedar on the wall <\/p>\n

\"BrightPlenty of natural light in the kitchen <\/p>\n

\"WoodenSmall garden by the entrance<\/p>\n

Thankfully, in the hands of this furniture-maker-cum-interior designer (behind some of our favourite Tokyo spots, including Paddlers Coffee and independent furniture shop Bullpen), the renovation was always going to be tasteful. He commissioned an architect friend to help reshuffle the layout and worked with a traditional father-and-son carpentry duo on the internal timber trimmings.<\/p>\n

During the overhaul the old engawa terrace [a feature of traditional Japanese houses] was removed to enlarge the living area, making room for the sunlit sofa that now sits underneath the window. \u201cThere was a Japanese-style room here and we found an irori [sunken hearth] under the tatami mats,\u201d he says of a feature that showed the history of the structure. In the process of removing the original low ceilings, sturdy timber beams resurfaced too, which now have a pronounced presence throughout the house.<\/p>\n

In terms of new additions, Burioka inserted a line of small windows across the north wall to bring in more sunlight. He also varnished the pitched red-cedar ceiling to bounce more natural light into the room. \u201cIt is an old-fashioned varnish applied in the US military houses. You\u2019d also find it in classic hotels such as the Nara Hotel and the Fujiya Hotel,\u201d he says. He shows us a treasured book, Dependents Housing, that was published in 1948 and documents in detail the architectural and engineering plans for US military houses built in postwar Japan.<\/p>\n

Burioka made almost everything that went into the house, including the sofas, chairs, doors and wall lamps. The exterior walls are clad with red cedar, which has weathered to a pleasing grey since the couple moved in four years ago. Inside, the floorboards are made from an old American pitch pine.<\/p>\n

The height of the kitchen counter has been optimised for Burioka\u2019s wife Kazuko, who operates a pastry business from home. A small hut in front of the main building has been kitted out with an oven for baking, doubling as a mini shop when the time comes for summer bake sales.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s in the kitchen where this family of three come together and at its centre sits a beautiful round Mobley Works table. \u201cIt\u2019s my thing to have breakfast in the kitchen,\u201d says Burioka. Recently though, with the warmer weather, the family has been breakfasting alfresco on the wooden deck that Burioka built behind the house. It\u2019s not without its dangers: \u201cWhen you have breakfast here on a sunny day like this, you cannot go to work afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four years on, the house has a lived-in feel to it. Burioka has a few things to tweak but knows exactly what he wants; he favours an understated aesthetic. \u201cMy ideal house is one where people struggle to point a finger at any single outstanding feature,\u201d he says. \u201cBut when they leave they think to themselves, \u2018That was a great house.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rikiya Burioka spent years searching Tokyo for a place to build a house that would match the charm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[40009,40010,40011,8,9025,33804,38662,40012,31446,6981,52],"class_list":["post-61679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tokyo","tag-furniture-design","tag-furniture-maker","tag-home-renovation","tag-japan","tag-japanese-architecture","tag-japanese-craftsmanship","tag-japanese-design","tag-japanese-home","tag-machida","tag-residential-architecture","tag-tokyo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}