The Okayama Project

The Okayama Project - The Simple Life

Our latest exhibition invites everyone to witness a work in progress. The creation of our guesthouse, farm and community hub in rural Okayama, Japan. Join us at our Melbourne store for the exhibition and talks, or start your journey here...

"listen to the river"

"listen to the bamboo forest"

- Zenta Tanaka, Co-founder of CIBI

"walk around and observe nature"

CIBI Okayama

Fifteen years after CIBI began, our exhibition, The Okayama Project - The Simple Life, reveals a curious travelling pathway of design aspirations, tradition and joy set in co-founder Meg Tanaka's hometown Kibichuo, Okayama.

There, the community lives close to nature and life moves at a leisurely pace. Locals tend vegetable gardens and vineyards while bamboo groves sway in the breeze. In this beautiful landscape, where nature presents a gentle way forward, CIBI has started a project to visit, celebrate and share at home.

In valuing the simple life, CIBI recognises the ordinary as a good thing. The rural landscape of Japan, generously presents an alternative pathway to move forward. CIBI's role is not to export design upon a community and then walk away, but rather to live alongside, share our energies as a simple act of replenishment and contribution to a shared tomorrow. The Okayama Project is the creation of two endeavours; CIBI House and CIBI Okayama.

CIBI House

CIBI House is your Japanese countryside home, your accommodation located in Kibichuo, Okayama Prefecture. A 150 year old traditional timber Japanese farmhouse placed gently on the mountainside, a large yuzu tree in the front garden signals your arrival as you travel through the farming valley. Delicately restored with a CIBI heart, local craftspersons and curated with CIBI design objects by Sori Yanagi, Hakusan Porcelain and Isamu Noguchi, daily essentials to ensure your stay is a warm simple experience.
Opening 2026.

Community Hub

CIBI Okayama absorbs the goodness of CIBI Melbourne and CIBI Tokyo to share a lifestyle of design, food and space. A destination to welcome people beyond the community and a daily destination for the local community to gather to enjoy the simple things in life. CIBI Okayama is your heartfelt morning coffee and conversation, your CIBI traditional Japanese breakfast and your home of design to welcome into your everyday life.