Shinya Kimura

Portrait via www.chabottengineering.com

The Japanese are blessed with a long tradition of rigorous crafts­manship. From calli­graphy and type design to silk printing and sword making – there are centuries old ways of doing things that put process as far to the forefront as product.

Tokyo bred Shinya Kimura is one of the many Japanese craftsmen in this tradition turning their hands to motor­cycles. Working these days in California, the applic­ation of his metic­ulous, back-​​to-​​basics philo­sophy is producing fiendishly beautiful bikes.

“For me a motor­cycle is more than art,” he says, “it’s something that brings out my instincts, the wildness and vulner­ab­ility in me.”

Do yourself a favour. Take two minutes and forty five seconds to watch this video.