The universe is made of five great elements: earth, water, fire, wind, and void. This Buddhist idea, born in ancient India, reached Heian-period Japan by way of China, and was translated into three-dimensional design as the gorinto, the five-ring pagoda. From importing an idea to inventing a form. Stacking a cube, a sphere, a pyramid, a half-moon, and a jewel, this shape exists in neither India nor China; it is a uniquely Japanese creation. In an age of war, it spread throughout the country as a vessel for ashes and hand-copied sutras, for people living in fear.

AMUAMI’s gorinto is made of a wooden core wrapped in washi paper. Set beside it the three ritual implements — an incense burner, a candlestick, and a flower vase — and it becomes a small Buddhist altar for a contemporary home. A vessel made entirely in Japan, sublimating a vast philosophy of the cosmos into a small place of prayer.