Profile

The Architect of Spaces Where the World Breathes

Born in Osaka in 1976 and now based in Kyoto, Masayuki Inaida was not destined to become one of the most singular artisans of sukiya architecture. A graduate of Doshisha University, he began his career in the precision machinery industry, a world of millimeter-perfect precision. But very quickly, the call of wood, of ancestral craftsmanship, and of an aesthetic in harmony with nature became too strong. He left engineering to cross the threshold into a quieter world: that of traditional Japanese construction.

In 2005, he joined Yamanaka Komuten, the company in charge of the buildings at Daitoku-ji, Kyoto's iconic Zen temple. There, amidst centuries-old pillars and tea pavilions, he honed his understanding of wabi-sabi, of emptiness, of the beauty of the unfinished. House after house, in Japan and abroad, he discovered that building is not simply about erecting a structure, but about shaping a state of mind: that of a mindful presence to the world.

Ten years later, driven by the desire to freely share the essence of the tea room, he designed Kian, a bamboo tea house structure that can be transported and assembled independently by one person. A bold move: to transform all of nature into a tea pavilion. Forests, rivers, coastlines, and even cities became his playground. Kian traveled from France to the United Kingdom, from the United States to the Japanese mountains, creating suspended moments where tea became a universal language.

In recent years, Masayuki Inaida has taken this fusion of ritual and landscape even further by organizing a tea ceremony at the summit of Mount Fuji, a symbolic experience of the intimate connection he seeks to rekindle between humanity and nature. In 2022, at the height of a global pandemic, he built Rokkaku-an, a tea house in Paris's 1st arrondissement. The space became a refuge, a place for emotional connection in a time marked by distance.

Three years later, he oversaw the renovation of a sushi restaurant in Montmartre, where he installed a counter made of 350-year-old Yoshino hinoki wood. Designed, exported, and assembled under his direction, this ancient wood embodies the history of Japanese craftsmanship that he wanted to make visible to the world.
His work has been widely featured in the Japanese and international press.
Today, Masayuki Inaida continues to travel between Japan and Europe, carrying with him a vision: to create spaces and experiences that allow everyone to rediscover an essential gesture—that of being present, to oneself, to others, to nature.