Before there was a shop.

Before the name.

Before the first bookbinding knife ever hit the table…

There was Kuro.

He was mine — the kind of cat who didn’t just curl up next to you, but watched you. Observed. Judged (affectionately). He was a presence. All cat, all attitude, all heart. If you ever lived with a cat who thinks they’re in charge — that was Kuro.

When we first started daydreaming about opening a studio, it always included him. We’d joke about how Kuro would be the one running the place — greeting visitors, sleeping in sunspots, swatting dangerously close to scissors. He was supposed to be our studio cat. The official mascot of whatever we built.

But life shifted. And Kuro never made it back to Hawaiʻi with us.

Still — he’s in everything.

He’s in the name. He’s in the energy.

He’s in the way we care for the things we make, and in how we greet the people who find them. Quietly. Warmly. Maybe with a little sass.

So if you’ve ever wondered where our name comes from —

It comes from him. The one who was always supposed to run the place.

Miss you, bud.