My first days in Portugal in October of 2021 started on a fateful autumn afternoon when I received an invitation to a phenomenal Vogue Ball by an incredibly talented interior designer JASON LYN, the creator of Seres Interiors. He said “Come join me at a friend’s party. We’ll all head over to the Divine Feminine Gucci Ball afterwards.” At that time, knowing no one here in Lisboa, I felt grateful that someone finally got me as Paris is Burning; Jennie Livingston’s 1990 documentary is still one of my favorites that lies on my personal shelf of documentaries that inspire me.

Ironically, Jason and I lived in New York at the same time, in the bubble of the late nineties, a grittier and livelier time sans social media and matcha lattes. While Jason was a student at Parsons, I studied at Tisch School of the Arts. To this day, I consider myself fortunate for this time. The education. The people. The inspiration at every corner of the streets. While everyone who’s ever lived more than six months in New York will echo the same thought, for me the nineties in New York was a time of screechy subway sounds meshed with dirty yellow cabs and the unforgettable meatpacking district with a small club called the Cooler where Blonde Redhead would play on the weekends and prostitutes would parade the alleyways at dawn while the meat packers started their day. Oh the nineties, a time of pagers and landline phone calls. Jason and I probably knocked elbows dancing on the dance floor at the Tunnel, a famed Chelsea nightclub but our early mornings were back at school. We never met, even though we shared a handful of friends. It wasn’t till Portugal that my best friend put us in contact and finally, the stars aligned because we were living in the same city.

But that night back in late November, a couple years ago, Jason introduced me to the charming NATHAN and his lovely partner STEFFEN. When I entered their immaculate apartment, back in the corner of the room, my eyes were drawn to this exquisite table with dried driftwood and architectural flowers with names I couldn’t really tell you but I loved how he draped them on the wall. I saw his tools. They were unique, antique like. I blurted “Who’s this?” because everything was so unique and beautiful. There was a flawless eye towards design.

Each and every floral worked perfectly within the space. At that time, Nathan was working from home but even so, there was something so special and interesting about what was on the table. I needed to know more about his process. It wasn’t just floral design, it was an art form, something much better.

And now I bring us back to this balmy afternoon in June 2023. A couple months back, Nathan finally opened his studio in the neighborhood of Estela. As I walked into his studio, I was overwhelmed by the same emotions that struck me years ago. There’s a beautiful dried bouquet in the window, the shelves stacked with unique florals but this time, a scent of garlic from the garlic buds loomed through the room.

We sat down. Nathan, the same smile as when I met him, but now with a different hair color. Only he could pull off being a platinum blonde.

What inspires you?

Nature is a big inspiration. It’s usually the small things. When I’m walking on the street, I see some shape that I find interesting and that inspires me to recreate something in that shape or even, something like that. I love how plants can grow from cracks in the building. When you live in a city you see that a lot. It’s so poetic for me.

Do you think your childhood in Rio inspires that?

Definitely. Rio is a beautiful city and nature is a part of the city. In Rio, it’s just there in your face. It’s so lush. So being half Brazilian and half Japanese, my design represents what I love to do, very tropical designs. It’s minimalist but can be lush at the same time. My designs have this duality of both of my cultures.

What is the story behind Kokuga?

The first time I went to Japan was in 2017. It was a very meaningful trip for me. This is where I started my first class with Ikebana. Ironically my mother studied Ikebana and as a child I remember this book she had on it. When I was a kid, I always remembered my mother arranging flowers. So when I returned to Rio from Japan, I started practicing by myself. You have different schools in Ikebana. The style I studied is called Moribana.

You usually have three main elements. One represents heaven or divinity. The other represents earth and the other represents humanity. The foundation of the idea is that one needs to find balance between the three. So when creating an arrangement, the end goal is to create balance between these three elements.

The negative space is also very important for the Ikebana arrangements. It’s very different from the traditional western arrangement that’s very full with a mass of flowers which is beautiful as well but very different from what Ikebana teaches you. After practicing in Rio after Japan, I decided not to follow the rules as it’s very strict which brought me to the style I have today. It all started because of this trip I did to Japan.

I use a lot of colors in my florals because of the inspiration from Rio. Kokuga is my original last name. When my grandparents moved to Brazil, Kokuga became Kunigami. It’s an homage to them. To my Japanese heritage.

What is your process?

My process is usually very intuitive. When I buy flowers, I buy the ones I’m drawn to, I work with that. It’s very rare for me to think beforehand of what I’m going to do. Obviously this happens with my business. There’s moments I need to do that for clients and proposals but at the moment I start creating, it just happens organically and thankfully, most of my clients understand and respect that. I appreciate that a lot.

Who is an artist that inspires you?

Yukio Nakagawa. An artist who dedicated his life to florals. It’s amazing what he did. He photographed all his work. He was a pioneer. This was in the early eighties. He was making sculptural floral designs. He was so unique and so strong and intense. Then he started working with glass. He just goes to a completely different level. I love his work.

Music is also so important to me. Right now, I’m listening to a lot of Brazilian music since I’ve come back from Rio and Carnival. Portugal is also an amazing place to be and it allows me to explore all of this and develop my craft and business.

I’m fascinated by the whole process of life and death within florals. The fundamentals of Ikebana touch upon this. The moment that you start working on an arrangement, is also the moment the florals are dying. The moment you finish, the florals won’t last for more than a few days or if you’re lucky a week or two. It’s a metaphor for so many things.

What’s the best way to maintain your florals?

In Ikebana they recommend cutting your stems inside water so there’s no contact with the air. You can change the water every couple of days. I just respect the natural cycle of the lifespan with the flower. I’m a little bit of a purist so I don’t use any floral food or chemicals to keep them alive. These small things help maintain them. It’s also important to know not to put your florals in direct sunlight.

What’s ahead for Kokuga?

Florals will always be the main passion of Kokuga but the end goal is to have other products. I’ve been developing candles and eventually I want to go into other things related to florals that make sense for the brand. Things have always begun in a very organic way for me. Of course, I have ideas but I do like to go with the flow.

As we finished this conversation, I left Nathan’s studio as he had to prepare for an event in the afternoon. I watched him as he brought more florals to his table and instantly, I could see his meditative process in creating his designs. Now I understood his organic way of bringing Ikebana to his process of creation.

While I learned about his craft and the fundamentals of Ikebana, on a deeper and more organic level, I saw our connections in being children from two different cultures, even our dedication to our family heritage and how our family changed their given names when immigrating to a new country. Through our inherited DNA and the way in which we saw the world, our ethos grew to show us our own artistic vision. I’m excited to see what the next years ahead will bring forth for Nathan and Kokuga. I know it will be something very special.

To follow Kokuga on instagram please go to @kokuga_ or www.kokuga.eu