In the Japanese countryside, a contemporary house in Tottori Prefecture brings together sharp Japanese lines and Nordic design. Owners Jun and Yoshiko Maeta invited Design Stories to visit their warm home, filled with music, laughter, and illuminating light that moves throughout the day.

“YOU CAN’T SEE my house from the street,” Jun jokes upon arrival – the building is covered in vine plants, creating an illusion of blending into the surrounding forest. When you step inside, you are greeted by a unique space with a mix of four key materials: concrete, wood, steel, and glass.
It is afternoon, and the warm sun fills the large, open living and dining area. The added wooden structure on the windows, placed close to the high ceiling, creates a play of light and shadow. Light is a central design element for retired architect Jun, who designed and built the house around 30 years ago. He describes perfect lighting as something that fills a space with “particles of light” through indirect illumination.
The second thing you notice in the space is music playing from the speakers. After retiring from welfare work, Yoshiko’s days are now filled with day-to-day tasks and running their guest house on Airbnb. She believes music and architecture share commonalities, creating pleasant atmospheres. She prefers classical music, but recently, her guests have introduced the couple to new genres.
To Yoshiko, music and architecture share the ability to create pleasant and balanced atmospheres.
Jun and Yoshiko started renting their guest house nine years ago and love meeting people from all over the world. “We hope our house inspires visitors to think about design and architecture,” the couple shares. The guest house is a separate smaller building connected to the main house by concrete hallways and the garden.


THE BUILDING WAS completed in 1996 and took about three years from design to completion. When newly built, the house was bare concrete. Instead of a full renovation, the couple gradually developed it over the years. “Looking back, it feels like we’ve been building continuously, but now it has finally reached its present form.”
As a child, it was natural for Jun to help with the family construction business, and when he started working on this building, he did as much as he could himself. Helping the family business also sparked his career. After moving to Tokyo, he began studying architecture independently.
This is also where Yoshiko and Jun met 50 years ago. “We both worked while attending a night architecture school. During a design class, our instructor scolded us harshly for poor sketches. I decided to leave early, and Jun happened to do the same. That’s how we met.”


THE HOUSE IS Jun’s signature style. We sat down by the one-of-a-kind coffee table in the living room, designed by him and made by local artisans. He showed his work over the years, published in various design and architecture magazines. “My design is always the same,” Jun said, laughing while flipping through pages.
In his design, he always has a garden in the center; he prefers a square shape and highlights his favorite materials – steel, wood, and concrete. He also always selects some of his favorite furniture pieces for the buildings he designs. You can always find a Louis Poulsen PH5 lamp and Carl Hansen & Søn Wishbone chairs, which he also chose for their home.
Jun describes Nordic design as number one: “It is refined and has universal appeal.” When he was 25, he traveled to Europe by train via the Trans-Siberian Railway and spent about three months exploring, including a month in Finland. He was amazed by Finland’s modern architecture and visited remarkable architectural sites, from the Paimio Sanatorium to Temppeliaukio Church, Säynätsalo Town Hall, and Kaleva Church in Tampere.
ONE OF THE KEY elements in the space is the large kitchen table, another design by Jun. Above it hangs a white Louis Poulsen PH5 lamp. Jun admires this Danish design icon for its style, functionality, and timelessness: “It never gets boring,” he describes.
Jun admires the PH 5 lamp for its style, functionality, and timeless design. The couple owns five lamps in different colors!
In fact, PH5 was the first thing Jun sketched in design school. The couple are true fans of this classic and own five of the lamps in different colors, which they change with the seasons. Other favorite furniture pieces include a Hans Wegner rocking chair, a Le Corbusier chair, a Mario Marenco sofa, and an Eames office chair.
Alongside design classics, you’ll find personal treasures, from old Chinese ceramics and vintage rugs to stones collected from nearby beaches.


IN ADDITION TO impressive architecture and design icons throughout the house, nature plays a significant role in the space. The central garden is filled with various plants, and large houseplants create a seamless flow from garden to living area. Jun and Yoshiko like to keep the large hallway windows near the garden open. These windows were added later and imported from Sweden.
“At the time, Japan didn’t have triple-glass rotating windows, and we trusted Nordic industrial products, so we chose Swedish windows, which were directly imported by sea.”
Jun and Yoshiko enjoy spending time outdoors. There is a small garden outside the house where they grow vegetables in the summer. Their styling tip to Design Stories readers is to always include elements that actively interact with nature, like light, water, wind, greenery, and scents.

The house is located in the area where Jun grew up. “I moved to Tokyo at 18. Through my design work, I gained diverse experiences. Over time, my values about my environment shifted, especially when considering the best environment to raise children.”
For Yoshiko, the reason to move to the countryside was the same: she wanted to raise children in a spacious environment. “I envisioned a life of relaxed farming, but I quickly took up full-time work, balancing a busy schedule of work, housework, and parenting. Still, I love it here.”
Shop the style

Puttonen Ruska is a London and Helsinki-based Creative Studio founded by the creative duo Mikko Puttonen and Lucas Ruska Martin. When Lucas and Mikko are not in London, traveling or attending fashion weeks you can find the couple at their second base just outside of Helsinki, probably hiking in the forest or cooking.
See also:
• New arrivals at Finnish Design Shop >
Text and images: Puttonen Ruska
Featured items may not be available worldwide.