Kinfolk Magazine Issue 32 (the Tokyo Issue) is available now on loremnotipsum.com. In Haruki Murakami’s breakthrough novel, Norwegian Wood, the young lovers spend days tramping the streets of 1960s-era Tokyo. The landscape unfurls boundlessly before them: ‘we kept walking…climbing hills, crossing rivers, and railway lines, just walking and walking with no destination in mind,’ Toru recalls. It’s a romantic vision of a city that, today, can feel impenetrable to the outsider. Building on the unparalleled popularity of our Japan Issue, Kinfolk is spending summer in the Japanese capital for Issue Thirty-Two. Anchored by an extensive city guide of her best places to eat, sleep, shop and read selected by the Kinfolk team, the Tokyo Issue will contain interviews with leading cultural figures, a local fashion editorial and an original essay by Moeko Fuji.
Kinfolk was founded in Oregan, operates out of Copenhagen, and has long had roots in Japan. In fact, since 2013, the magazine-and its ongoing exploration of quality of life – has been translated into Japanese at our sister office in the heart of Shibuya, Tokyo. On our most recent visit in March, local editors Mako Ayabe and Kota Engaku reminded us what life in the Japanese capital is like for those living there with a sense of intention and energy: one of the navigable neighbourhoods, courteous codes and cutting-edge culture. This is in stark contrast to the vision of Tokyo as a city that can feel impenetrable to the outsider.
For our 18-page guide, our photographer Romain Laprade and local writer Selena Hoy took recommendations from our Japan team and visited a dozen locations that, between them, paint a full picture of this varied metropolis: from a new rice specialist revitalizing a shuttered shopping district, to a store inside a house in upmarket, residential Shirokane. For our archive and feature profiles, we’ve chosen two women who made Tokyo their home a hundred years apart: Toko Shinoda, the 106-year-old abstract artist who still lives in the city center, and Yoon Ahn, the Korean designer who moved to the city in the early aughts, riding the peak of the city’s street-style wave.
Perhaps because Tokyo is the world’s most populous metropolis, spending time in the city left us longing for space to stretch out and enjoy the summer. Our Kinfolk Magazine Issue 32 fashion shoot takes place on a boat off the coast of Marseille, and our feature profile of Coco O tells the story of how the singer found room to breathe again by moving back to Copenhagen after several years in Los Angeles. And, in interviews with the architects Kengo Kuma and Bijoy Jain, we discover a common reverence for creating building in conversation with the nature and light that surrounds them.
Kinfolk is a slow lifestyle magazine published by Ouur that explores ways for readers to simplify their lives, cultivate community and spend more time with their friends and family. Founded in 2011, Kinfolk is now the leading independent lifestyle magazine for young creative professionals and also produces international editions in Japan, China, Korea and Russia. Published quarterly, Kinfolk maintains a vibrant contributor base from Copenhagen to Cape Town. Every element of Kinfolk—the features, photography, and general aesthetics—are consistent with the way we feel entertaining should be: simple, uncomplicated, and less contrived. Kinfolk is the marriage of our appreciation for art and design and our love for spending time with family and friends.
Details: Kinfolk Magazine – Issue 32
With a dynamic mix of long-form journalism, interviews and shorter essays, plus concept-driven visual stories and contributors across the globe, the forthcoming issue of Kinfolk Magazine continues to dedicate its editorial to exploring personal values and quality of life.
192 pages, offset-printed and perfect bound, full color on uncoated paper. Printed in Canada.
