Bearbrick Karimoku Fragment Carved Wooden Longitudinal Chess 400% Wood

The BE@RBRICK Karimoku fragment design Carved Wooden Longitudinal Chess 4 in Wood is a premium sculptural collectible produced through the three-way collaboration of Medicom Toy, Japanese furniture manufacturer Karimoku, and Hiroshi Fujiwara's fragment design creative platform, applying Karimoku's master woodworking craftsmanship to a custom BE@RBRICK chess piece form that sits outside the standard 100% to 1000% scale range as a unique wooden art object, with four pieces in the set each hand-carved or precision-machined from Karimoku's premium wood stock in the longitudinal chess form that elongates the standard BE@RBRICK proportion into a chess-inspired tall and narrow column construction that references both the chess piece's upright noble bearing and the woodworking tradition of turned and carved game pieces. Karimoku is one of Japan's most respected furniture manufacturers, founded in 1940 in Aichi Prefecture and known for producing premium solid wood furniture with a philosophy of genuine craftsmanship and material honesty that has made the brand one of the rare Japanese furniture companies to earn both domestic respect and international design community attention, with the Karimoku x fragment design collaboration over multiple years producing collectible wooden objects that translate Karimoku's furniture-grade craftsmanship into limited-edition art object territory. Fragment design, the creative label of Hiroshi Fujiwara often described as the godfather of Japanese streetwear, has consistently operated at the intersection of high craft and street culture through its numerous collaborations, and the Karimoku fragment design BE@RBRICK Chess represents one of the most materially premium and most craft-focused projects in the fragment design collaborative catalog.

The Wood colorway designation indicates the natural, unsealed or minimally finished wood surface that reveals Karimoku's wood selection and grain character as the primary aesthetic element rather than paint or stain obscuring the material's natural appearance, connecting this BE@RBRICK to the wabi-sabi tradition of appreciating natural material imperfection and variation as aesthetic virtues rather than deficiencies to be concealed. The four-piece set at $1,800 retail represents one of the highest price points in the standard Medicom Toy BE@RBRICK product catalog, reflecting Karimoku's premium wood material and hand-finishing processes, the fragment design creative direction's premium positioning across its collaborative partners, and the artistic significance of the chess form as an object with five centuries of craftsmanship tradition. Released August 1, 2022 through Medicom Toy and select premium retailers.

The Bearbrick Karimoku fragment design Carved Wooden Longitudinal Chess 4 Wood was released on August 1, 2022 with a retail price of $1,800.