Whimsical Jewelry from a Secret Garden
By Manish Saha

Japanese jewelry designer Kikui Kazuo is a rare thing: a wholly innovative and whimsical artist gaining fast exposure in the Occidental world. While Kazuo has been a celebrated designer in his native Japan for almost decade, and his Osaka boutique, Feel, is a staple for Asia's diamond wearing, fast car driving, and trend setting elite, Kazuo's signature designs are only now being presented in New York for the first time.

Born to a middle class family, Kazuo's early biography reads as a fable of his time. His mother was a hair dresser (it isn't difficult to imagine that watching Japanese women constantly made over fed young Kikui an early taste for glamour and transformation). His father was a veteran of World World II and largely absent during his upbringing. It is possible that Kazou would have led a typical, ordinary middle-class existence in the smaller cities of Japan if not for a near fatal automobile accident that left him partially handicapped during his teenager years. Through Kazou's brush with mortality and his gradual recovery the artist developed a perspective on the nature within beauty and a resolve to create a sence of perfection in his designs. This sensitivity to the resilience of nature can be seen in Kazou's his most recent jewelry collections. His playful diamond-studded reverences to natures dark icons: spiders, and owls create an enigmatic contrast to the empirical gowns and lapels they will grace. Soon after his recovery Kazou found himself as a major player in a high stakes world of precious stone jewelry design. Kazuo's deigns first appeared at high end department stores in Japan, and later at Gimmel. Turning down offers from both Cartier and Tiffany, Kazuo opened his boutique, Feel in 1996.

	Kikui Kazou's Website

Because Kazuo has remained in Asia, resisting the restrictions of western design, his jewelry is radiant with the elegance of ancient Asian tradition, tempered by his always fresh contemporary eccentricity. A master of the "Pave" technique of setting stones, Kazou creates jewel- encrusted ribbons with diamonds, emeralds, silver, sapphire and other precious stones. In Kazou's world, jewelry is a fairy tale. Kazou's designs break down the barrier between the jewel object and the wearer, creating a synthetic process through which the wearer enters Kazou's secret garden.

His Spring 2005 collection includes an owl broach, crafted out of diamonds, sitting on an emerald tree-branch. The wearer of the owl, becomes a tree, a supporter of the branch that holds the owl. In another broach, a spider with an onyx back weaves a delicate and intricate web of diamonds and rubies. In Kazuo's traditional Royal ring, a gentle gold crown is encrusted with diamonds and rubies. The finger with the royal ring is, a Cinderella, a sleeping beauty, a queen or a dandy prince.

Kazuo is a true original. Recovering from near death, Kazuo fought his way out of a cage like a fleeing onyx bird pin. One can be sure that the legacy of Kazuo in the United States is only just beginning as Kazuo makes his New York debut.