COCHAE: Where Japanese Folk Culture Meets Playful Design

Sometimes we discover a designer through a book, an exhibition or a magazine. In COCHAEs case, we bought a box of kibi dango at Okayama Station – although it took us several years to realise it.

Whenever travelling through Okayama (our customers will remember that The Superior Labor and Nanala Design hail from there), Nomad_ist had developed a small habit: buying the same box of white peach kibi dango at the station. Okayama is famous for its peaches, but also for its connection with Momotaro, one of Japan’s best-known folk tales.

The sweets made by Yamawata Eijudo bring the two together. Open the peach-shaped box and you find Momotaro and the characters from his story – the dog, monkey, pheasant and oni – appearing on the individual wrappers in bright colours and with wonderfully expressive faces.

Image credit: eijudo

We always loved those illustrations. They were one of the reasons Nomad_ist kept choosing the same box, but she never really wondered who had designed them.As it turns out, we had already discovered COCHAE. We simply didn’t know their name yet.

Some time later, while visiting one of our suppliers in the same region, we were given another omiyage. This time it was Beni Daruma, a red yuzu kosho made by Sato Beni Shoten in Fukiya, Okayama. The spicy condiment came in a small round jar, transformed by its packaging into a wonderfully expressive red Daruma.

Image credit: harenokunikara

She remembers looking at it and immediately thinking of the characters on the kibi dango from Okayama Station. There was something strangely familiar in the face, the colours and the slightly mischievous humour. She couldn’t explain the connection, but she was convinced that the two somehow belonged to the same visual world.

The packaging for Beni Daruma was also designed by COCHAE and without knowing it, we had now encountered their work twice, through two completely different omiyage from Okayama.

The answer came eventually from somewhere else entirely: a square of fabric.

While browsing the collections of Musubi, the Kyoto furoshiki specialist, we came across a series of designs that immediately caught our attention. There were bold faces, animals and traditional Japanese characters, treated with the same combination of humour, colour and strong graphic design.

That feeling of recognition came back immediately, but this time there was a name beside the designs: COCHAE. Suddenly everything fell into place: the Momotaro characters on the kibi dango, the red Daruma on the chilli condiment and now these furoshiki.

We had been following the work of the same designers around Japan without knowing it!

Once we finally knew who they were, we wanted to know more...

COCHAE is a Japanese design unit founded in 2003, with particularly strong roots in Okayama. Its work revolves around what the group describes as “asobi no design” – design for play.

COCHAE draws inspiration from Japanese folk culture, traditional toys, local stories and familiar characters such as Momotaro, oni, daruma and yokai, but rarely treats them as untouchable pieces of heritage, instead, they play with them.

The characters become colourful packaging, origami, furoshiki and everyday objects. Traditional references remain clearly recognisable, but they are given new expressions, new colours and often a generous dose of humour.

Even the name COCHAE reflects the group’s connection with Okayama and Japanese popular culture. It references Kochae, a traditional folk song associated with the Bizen and Okayama area.

There is something very coherent about discovering their work through local omiyage. COCHAE has repeatedly worked with regional Japanese culture and products, using graphic design as a way of making traditions visible to a new audience.

One of the phrases associated with the group is “Let’s make origami more pop!”, and their approach is very different from the traditional plain sheets of origami paper many of us know. Origami has been central to COCHAE almost from the beginning.

COCHAE prints characters and graphic elements directly onto the paper. As you fold it, a face begins to appear. A flat illustration becomes an animal, a daruma, an oni or another character, the design therefore isn’t finished when you buy it; you finish it yourself.

That small distinction says a great deal about COCHAE. Their work is designed to be touched, folded, transformed and enjoyed rather than simply admired, it also provides an accessible introduction to Japanese visual culture. You may initially choose a sheet simply because you like the illustration, then discover the folk tale, traditional toy or character behind it.

This approach also explains why COCHAE’s collaboration with Musubi works so well.

Origami and furoshiki may seem like very different things, but they share a simple principle. With origami, folding a square of paper transforms a flat surface into something new. With a furoshiki, folding and tying a square of fabric around an object does much the same thing. COCHAE uses that transformation as part of the illustration.

Depending on how the furoshiki is folded and tied, a character can change expression or appear in an unexpected place. A knot can become part of a face. Different elements of the illustration emerge according to the object being wrapped.

The furoshiki is therefore not simply fabric carrying a COCHAE print, the way you use it becomes part of the design.

It was through these Musubi furoshiki that we finally put a name to the illustrations we had been noticing for years.

Once we understood the story behind COCHAE, bringing their work to Nomado Store felt like an obvious choice.

Perhaps what we like most is the fact that our discovery happened backwards. We didn’t read about COCHAE and then go looking for their work, we first liked the objects: a box of peach kibi dango bought at Okayama Station, a Beni Daruma received as an omiyage from one of our suppliers, a furoshiki discovered through Musubi and finally, the COCHAE origami collection.

Only afterwards did we realise that the same creative thread connected all of them.

That is also what we enjoy about the objects we select for Nomado Store. They don’t necessarily require an explanation before you can appreciate them. You might first choose a COCHAE origami because a character makes you smile, or a furoshiki simply because you love its colours. Then, perhaps, you start wondering about the oni, the Daruma or the story of Momotaro. And through a small everyday object, you discover a little more about Japanese culture.

That is exactly how we discovered COCHAE ourselves, and we are very happy to bring a little of their playful world from Okayama to Europe through Nomado Store.