Kamiza design

A couple weeks ago, Malory Sensei asked me to think about kamiza design, and look at ones that I thought were particularly well-designed. I sent her a few, but I figured I'd put my findings here.

I think the most wonderful kamiza designs are modeled after tokonoma, and have a tokobashira that reflects the level of formality you wish to convey.

You could use the tokobashira to link the kamiza design to the dojo and it's "personality." For example, young cedar trees that reference the region and the relative age of the dojo. A larger available space would be interesting for more expressive floral arrangements.

Here is an example of one that I thought was particularly nice with beautiful live edges and recessed lighting. It's a little too elaborate and symmetrical. A kamiza like this would of course require some construction. If you wanted to place it on the back wall, the column that sticks out by the bell table could be hidden by framing a 1-foot-deep wall that extends along the entire back wall.

Some folks have made a partial wall:

Here is a beautiful minimalist kamiza from Philadelphia, with just a simple ledge (minimal construction):

Here's another that's minimalist, but very shallow alcove, with the tokobashira as a very strong visual element:

This reminds me of course of NYA's kamiza: