FEATURE: Locals turn tsunami recovery effort into global furniture brand

SENDAI - What began as a makeshift carpentry space amid tsunami debris has grown into an internationally recognized furniture brand, as residents of Ishinomaki turned rebuilding into a shared act of craftsmanship after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Shortly after the 2011 disaster that ravaged northeastern Japan, Tokyo-based architect Keiji Ashizawa traveled to Ishinomaki to check on a client whose shop had been damaged.