READ MORE: The New York streetwear/Japanese gardening cross-over you never imagined possible arrives this Thursday (31 August 2023) with the release of a limited-run Niwaki x Noah collaboration.

The brainchild of original Supreme supremo, Brendon Babenzien and Estelle Bailey-Babenzien, Noah makes music, skate and surf-inspired clothes and accessories that appeal to a wide-range of creative thinkers, doers and now, gardeners.

READ MORE: Back in late 2022, when Niwaki Will was over in Japan to visit Yuri at Niwaki Kagurazaka, meet some blacksmiths and help out with the photo shoot for our most recent catalogue, the team gathered to spend a day with friend of Niwaki, Masaru-san, also known as Niwaraku. Does that name sound familiar to you? Eagle-eyed readers will remember his starring role on the cover of the 2021 Niwaki catalogue (hat, jacket and general air of stylishness – model’s own).

Niwaraku kindly let team Niwaki tag along for a day of gentle gardening, sightseeing and spicy sushi rolls. Yuri took notes and a few pics while Soeda (our man with a cam in Japan) snapped a few more: so without further ado, here’s the report Yuri sent back to Niwaki HQ:

We’ve been making clothes that look great and work well both in and out of the garden for a few years now, so we were very pleased to discover Oliver Spencer shares our passion for utility, style and, crucially, gardening.

Following on from our successful collaboration in 2022, Oliver Spencer and Niwaki are excited to present some new and updated styles for this season’s offering.

If there’s one thing that unites winter festivities across the world, whether it’s Christmas in Dorset or New Year in Hokkaido, it’s the preparation of food to share with friends and family. And nothing makes prepping a meal easier and more pleasurable than a good quality knife. Everybody knows Niwaki does great garden gear, but did you know we also stock some very fine Japanese kitchen knives?

If you’re looking to upgrade your arsenal this Christmas, or you’ve already experienced Japanese knife quality and want to share your discovery with a friend or loved one, may we humbly present for your consideration a selection of rather good knives from our ever-expanding collection?

Of all the tropes and supposed characteristics of the Japanese way of life to have lodged in the Western consciousness, few have gained more traction – cemented in our brains by a hit book and TV series – than the notion of Japan as a land of uncluttered tidiness.

A quick visit to one of the charming but somewhat chaotic blacksmith’s workshops in Niigata would soon put paid to the idea that all Japanese are up to speed with this concept. That’s not to say there isn’t an underlying sense of order in such places: the functional simplicity of the secateurs and other fine products they create arises, in part, from the craftsman’s familiarity with the materials and tools of the trade, and these must be in the right place at the right time in the right condition. But Zen-like spaces these workshops are not.

Like most people, here at Niwaki we vacillate between the two positions. On one hand we love the sight of a tidy garden shed or a freshly clipped hedge, but on the other hand, like most gardeners, we have an ever-growing stack of broken plant pots that we’re keeping just in case, and let’s not mention the disorder and confusion that has taken hold in the back of the Niwaki Land Rover.

Whatever your take on all this, if you’ve got tools you need somewhere to store them and maybe a way to transport them, and we have several stylish new solutions to these age-old problems. We can’t guarantee you’ll achieve a higher spiritual plane as you rearrange your bits and pieces, but you can at least sleep well knowing you’ll be able to lay your hands on that spare spring for your Niwaki GR Pro Clippers or your well-used Niwaki Creanmate just when you need them (assuming you can remember where you’ve put the Tool Box itself).

Available in three sizes and two colours, these fine receptacles for stuff are smart enough to keep around the home – after all, it’s not just tools that need stashing – but tough enough to keep handy in a Landy and use non-stop in a workshop.

Click any photo to inspect the range.

On a clear, bright September morning, with the sun just warming the red bricks and stucco Neptune gargoyles of the handsome mansion block across the road, Niwaki Chiltern Street officially opened its doors to gardening aficionados, seekers of considered tools and accessories, denim freaks, and anyone else drawn in by the sheer elegance of its Jones Neville-crafted interior. We hope you will pay us a visit soon, if not today, to see the shop for yourself – we’re bursting with pride and can’t wait to show you around – but in the meantime, please let us whet your appetite with some information about how to find us and what to expect.

Sitting here at Niwaki HQ, Dorset, it’s sometimes easy to forget that our products begin their lives on the other side of the world.

Your favourite Moku Trowel found its shape in the hands of a father and son team in Niigata, and the Niwaki Blue Steel Higonokami Folding Knife you secretly covet couldn’t have been made anywhere but Miki, Hyogo Prefecture, since its 5th generation knife makers are the only remaining team who can use the protected name ‘Higonokami’ for their product

Although aimed at beginners, seasoned old pros should find something useful here too, and at the very least enjoy tut-tutting and disagreeing, for the first rule of box clipping is there are no rules in box clipping.

Last October, dodging typhoons, we found ourselves in Kyoto. Enquiries were made, Kimura san, Japanese gardener and friend, obliged. Hence a day filming at the Keihanna Commemorative Park, somewhere between Kyoto and Nara.

Join us as we scale the peaks of Kongo san, an unspectacular mountain in Osaka. Cable cars are acceptable.