J Style is owned and run by Sam & Jennifer Idosaka, "helped" by our children Joe (born 2002) and Meg (born 2005) and of course our lovely staff and our interstate agents.
J Style started in 1999 after we moved to Australia from Japan. Trying to fit out our new home we discovered a terrible lack of decent teapots (none had proper infusers, and they all dribbled when we poured). There was no crockery suitable for preparing and serving Japanese style food at home. Overall Australian tableware was pretty bland and uninteresting and all came in sets designed to serve meat & three veg.
Sam, being from Nagoya, home to some of the most skilled ceramicists in the world, and birth place of names like Noritake, new just who to call in such a crisis.
So that's how J Style started.
Over the years we have moved on from ceramics to all things Japanese, and Australia has moved on too. There are now many more noodle bowls, chopsticks and sushi plates available. Us Aussies are getting used to the idea of eating raw fish and seaweed for lunch. You'll still need to call J Style if you want a good fine infuser included with your teapot. And if you think you've tried green tea - you haven't until you've tried ours. Don't even THINK about buying it in a supermarket!
Our philosophy is still to find the things we miss from Japan, and bring them to Australia to share with everyone. Things we think are really useful and handy to own. Things that are lovely and gorgeous and ooh! why don't they ever sell those here? Things we like to own ourselves and think you might like too.