Urban Cabin Institute — Kamakura
A Place of Stillness
for Leaders
Urban Cabin Institute was founded within the Yamada Family
General Incorporated Association as a new family business,
by Yamada Nagamitsu — 11th generation head of the Yamada
family's Fushin-an — and Yamada Rie, to carry forward
the uniquely Japanese value of "shichu no sankyo".
Through art, space, culture, manners, travel, the brain, and technology — the urban way of using wealth — we refine and brand leaders and enterprises, sustaining the development of Japanese and indeed human culture, and playing our part in building a peaceful society.
In an age where human consciousness struggles to keep pace with the advance of technology and urbanisation, what will become of the city, and what should we, as urban people, do?
Why does the city need a "mountain dwelling"?
The Pinnacle of Japanese Luxury
"Shichu no Sankyo"
In the sixteenth century, the people of Sakai fought ceaselessly to succeed amid rapid change at home and abroad, living lives of relentless toil. To resolve this, Sakai's creative minds produced a quiet place for those who fight — "shichu no sankyo", a mountain dwelling in the city.
It was a hut of no more than four and a half tatami mats, austere in appearance yet lavish in refinement. The building itself was art, its whole lifestyle designed around the tokonoma — the world's first space for art curation.
"Though it may appear a poor dwelling,
in truth it is itself a thing of luxury and expense."João Rodrigues (16th century)
A Place of Stillness for Those Who Fight
Urban Cabin as Architecture
Leaders of the digital age need space and time in which to be released, in body and mind, from relentless work. Urban cabin holds two aspects: architecture, and an experience of time and space.
A space in which to converse with art and refine one's sensibility. A space in which to face oneself and shape a vision. An extraordinary space, apart from the everyday, where in the half-light one can settle the mind and cultivate the energy to run at full pace again tomorrow.
経営道場 / Keiei Dojo
Wabi-Suki-Do 侘び数寄道
Wabi-Suki-Do is a two-year, twenty-four-session course aimed at mastering "wabi-suki" — a uniquely Japanese value and sensibility — to refine the right brain of leaders. It draws on Sohen-style tea ceremony, Rinzai Zen, philosophy, art, self-management, communication, design, technology, fashion and travel, pilgrim-like, across tradition, the present and the future.
ART / Urban Cabin Institute
BLACK CUBE
Art Dojo Black Cube
The fire-damaged old farmhouse "Rikiiken" has taken on new life as "Black Cube". It now serves as an art dojo, holding exhibitions through which leaders refine the way they frame questions, their sensibility, and their communication, drawing on the way of life and creativity of artists.