Katachi Meaning & History.
Katachi is Japanese for ‘form’ or ‘shape’. Katachi is a popular Japanese restaurant.
To help all of the customers feel comfortable at Katachi, they decided to capitalize on the concept of taking Manhattan’s iconic and iconic and flipping it on its head. They invited 10 of the District’s best celebrity chefs (including David Perdue & Wolfgang Puck) to party with the staff and public through a series of short TikTok videos that not only celebrated the restaurant’s outstanding service but also conveyed the very different kind of experience that is a “Katachi in New York City”. Below, a compilation of all nine TikTok videos for “Katachi in New York City”.
Katachi is a Japanese restaurant (also known as a yokai) in New York’s West Village. It is famous for being able to sell more than 200 different kinds of makimono, the main course of which is a grilled rib-eye cooked slowly over Japanese charcoal for over 20 hours.
Katachi’s TikTok videos were part of its submission to the 2020 BETTER Fortnight. It partnered with The Bomb Disposal Unit, AKAS Footwear, Telfar Boston Tile & Decorative Arts, CHOW, Gayot and more to create and curate a viral video experience that would allow people to experience “The Katachi in New York City” through social storytelling and teamwork.
This all-star line-up of culinary collaborators brings us to the tremendous success of “Katachi in New York City”, as the restaurant’s brick and mortar sales have surpassed revenue, surpassing $100M in the last five years. That is the kind of achievement companies dream of when they are asked to partner with a global brand. And just as the team at Katachi couldn’t have imagined, the “Katachi in New York City” story has received a lot of love from the broader food community.
What makes katachi so important to Japanese design?
The Japanese word ‘kata’ refers to the shape of an object, or the outline of a form. It is used in architecture as well as in pottery, painting, and other means of visual expression.
One of the most important concepts in katachi is that of the opponent’s posture. Since ‘kata’ are sequential, the goal is to capitalise on the chance of an opponent’s reaction. When you analyse beyond movements, the main idea of the rhythm within kata is that of ‘opponent’ as a source of tension.
Kata are executed by employing several distinct steps, called actions. Each action is incorporated in response to the opponent’s previous action.
Our movements are always stilted and tentative, ever-changing. This stems from the fact that we need to balance several needs, such as safety, practicability, and efficiency. We will always be on the defensive, and we need to identify what the opponents’ next move will be.
As a result, each movement from the traditional martial arts is divided into different steps, called s such as Shin Karate, Kano, Judo, Samurai. Each step is comprised of a key component, called a kata.
Within kata, you have a sequence of numbered or named steps, referred to as a set of patterns. Within the set of named kata, there are different patterns to reach different goals. A kata is considered complete when it has all its named actions in order of execution.
Each distinct step has its own name, such as the step to strike, the step to escape the opponent’s grasp, or the step to counterattack. Each kata has its own tempo and flow. Indeed, you would not be able to teach Sagawa-Yûjo’s bushido to an individual that did not understand the concept of opposing actions.
Using katachi to create functional, beautiful designs
Functional beauty is all about using the katachi, or the shape, of an object to make it more functional. For example, the shape of a bento box is designed to serve lunch, but it also makes the box look beautiful. Katachi can be used in interior design, furniture design, and even in the way you dress.
The katachi technique of wrapping an object in a decorative wrap starts with a thought as to what function the object can serve. The next question to ask is, “can the function of the wrapped object still be realized through the wrapping”? Then, the katachi is wrapped in material that will take on the role of the natural skin texture of the object: cotton swabs, tissue, safety pins, thread, small twigs — anything that feels comfortable for you to wrap.
Sometimes wrapping is done with a bun or twine free, but most often wrapping with cotton batting or origami-style paper is used. Our colour choices for clothing are very limited because we’re used to fetching and paying attention to patterns and colours in stores. Wrapping helps you express your own colour palette.
Even though it looks messy and does not make any sense that that blue paper is next to the black cotton batting, the colour palette makes the table pop, and it makes the desk’s corner easier to reach.
Purple throws off the automatic eye and is less of a good match with the sugar bowl on my dresser. However, this style of wrapping lends itself well to incorporating saltpetre, a classic decorative flake into a katachi wrap. Because the flake has a natural brown hue to it, you can dress it up or dress it down.
