Nobuaki Sato 
Watch from the moment Lei appears → YouTube
During a five-day stay in Tokyo, Hiroshige Eto stopped by the Lei In Praise of Shadows Flagship Store while walking through Yoyogi-Uehara.
Where He First Stopped
His first stop inside the store was the Lei non electric aroma diffuser.
It uses no electricity. Heat from a candle turns a small propeller, creating an airflow that carries fragrance through the space.
From there, he sampled the fragrances in the store, including KUON, Citrus Wood, Cashmere Musk, and Sea Breeze Oud.
He described the room as calming, adding that with so many fragrances, he would normally expect at least one not to suit him — but he liked them all.
As he moved from one scent to the next, the conversation turned to how the objects work and the materials used to make them.
Materials in Changing Shadow
Aluminum and glass recur throughout the Lei collection.
Glass lets light pass through. Aluminum catches it differently, revealing its contours as the angle changes.
The black aluminum is blasted to diffuse reflections and then anodized, rather than painted. In the subdued light of the store, its edges and faint sheen appear or recede as the viewing angle changes.
Beside it, glass responds differently, catching light and reflecting fragments of the room around it.
What appears as a fixed surface in a photograph or on screen changes gradually as one moves through the space.
Subdued Light
The lighting in the Lei store is deliberately subdued.
The space takes its cue from In Praise of Shadows. Rather than illuminating every object evenly, areas of shadow are allowed to remain.
Within that light, the contours of aluminum and the transparency of glass shift as one moves through the room. Fragrance is experienced in the same setting, one scent at a time.
The same subdued light appears throughout Eto’s footage of the store.
Lei In Praise of Shadows Flagship Store
1F UEHARA TERRACE
1-30-12 Uehara, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 151-0064, Japan
A 2-minute walk from the South Exit of Yoyogi-Uehara Station
Flagship Store Hours
Online Store