Name: Monacca
Product: Wood briefcase
Location: Umaji, Japan

Monacca is a brand that takes its inspiration from thinned cedar from Umaji Village in Japan’s Kochi Prefecture, which has been renowned for high-quality wood from its Yanase Sugi (Japanese Yanase cedar) forests since the Shogunate era (aka, the 12th – 17th centuries). The villagers regard the forest as not simply a source of lumber, but as a place where air and water are renewed and generated.

Faced with a surplus of wood from the periodic thinning that’s required to keep the trees healthy, they decided that rather than throw it away, they’d do something both creative and environmentally friendly with it and—voila!—Monacca the brand, which marries old world craftsmanship with new world materials, was born. The result is a line of remarkably strong, remarkably lightweight, water-resistant bags (our favorite being the briefcase) designed by award-winning product designer Takumi Shimamura.

Their goal: to make an “eternal forest” not only by defending the woods, but by bringing things full circle by producing these beautiful cedar bags, which bring a little bit of Mother Nature into our everyday urban lives.