What do you take with you and what do you leave behind

For years I’ve been interesting in what people take with them when they have to leave, what kind of immaterial things like memories, thoughts, images, smells are important for people’s memory and future.
I made cupboards and suitcases for them.

Although people in Japan try to keep their rooms empty, they have a lot of storage space and they’re fully packed. The concept of ‘mottanai’ (don’t waste) is very common and a big tradition.

On the one hand it’s an interesting and modern notion on ecology and respect for nature, similar to ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’.
On the other hand someone told me that their grandmother used to buy many beautiful things but never used them and put them (don’t waste and wait till the good moment when visitors will come) in the cupboard till they were old fashioned.

On very few places under the Kamo river you find these houses of the homeless people

They build their houses Japanese style: not directly on the ground and with bamboo blinds. They know how to deal with a small space.