Toward Vertigo

Oliver Renaud-Clement | Ursula | 22nd August 2025

Tōgo Murano is hardly known outside Japan. At home though he is revered. He borrowed freely from brutalist, modernist and symbolist styles without becoming a devotee of any. His true allegiance was to sukiya, a refined style originating from tea house designs that has been “loosened up” to accommodate variation. So, what was the power of his designs? “He harnessed irrationality to form a consistent, highly poetic language, a language that somehow worked”. A backgrounder is here.