The design of bontei derives from that of Japanese gardens, especially the arrangements of sand and stones known as karesansui, and from the tea gardens, called roji.

The overall balance, for instance, often incorporates “empty” space and points of punctuation found in karesansui. This emptiness is called “ma” in Japanese and can refer to the undeveloped space in a garden, the unpainted portion of an ink landscape painting or a silent period in music.

The aesthetic of bontei, their colors, patterns and textures, is that of common materials used in a refined way. Stones, rusted metal, wood-fired ceramics. In Japan, this would be called the wabi aesthetic, which is most closely associated with the tea ceremony.

As a counterpoint to the rusticity of the wabi elements, I introduce elements that are precise and highly controlled. This interplay between diametric opposites is also a common theme in the aesthetics of the tea ceremony in which the element of control is called “shin” and that of wildness is called “sô.”