Kazuhiko Tomita describes himself as a nomad wandering between the East and the West. His life story bears this theory out. He opened his own studio in Milan, “2.5-dimensional design” in the Italian design Mecca, and was soon working with the likes of Alessandro Mendini, Ettore Sottsass and Vico Magistretti. Products he has designed have been integrated into the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. For him, simplicity is an important factor. But not Bauhaus-style minimalism. For Tomita, reduction to what is important is a feature of Japanese Shintoism, a belief that even inanimate objects have spiritual energy.