There is no lack of books that give you tips on how to live simply or how to follow the lifestyle of another country to make your life richer. Denmark gives us the coziness of hygge, the Dutch offer up the concept of Niksen (doing nothing to help combat burnout), and there is Swedish death cleaning. Now, author and businesswoman Yumiko Sekine brings us a book of her Japanese traditions to help us find more beauty and purpose in life through simplicity.
Yumiko started out buying books for a small shop in Tokyo and kept buying until she could open her own store of linens, housewares, and clothing. Now she’s been running Fog Linen for over 20 years and buys products from all over the world. Her products are hand chosen and individually beautiful, and she has taken this concept and built her home and her life in the same precise way.
Her new book, Simplicity at Home, offers her ideas for minimalist living as well as ideas for crafts, recipes, and tips for living with intention and finding more beauty in life. The book, co-written with Jenny Wapner, is filled with gorgeous photographs by Nao Shimizu. There is a peacefulness in the photos that accentuates the serenity of Yumiko’s lifestyle. Just flipping through the book helped me feel calmer and more centered.
Yumiko takes us through a year in her life, starting with summer. She talks about how carefully she chose what to bring in to her new home and how she cherishes lightweight linens for the warmer weather. She shows us her unique dishes and how she organizes her kitchen, and she offers a recipe for one of her favorite summer treats, Cold Noodles with Tempura Vegetables. And then there are tips for mending broken ceramics by adding some gold powder to highlight the imperfections.
Next is autumn, where Yumiko shows how she uses scraps of linen or older pieces she wants to repurpose into a patchwork that can be used for something completely different. Old shirts or sheets can be made into a curtain or an apron, for example. And she makes plans for her garden, planting herbs and vegetables she can eat fresh or dry to keep her garden richness close throughout the colder months. Yumiko takes us on a trip to her favorite rice shop for fresh rice, and even shows us how to carve our own spoon before ending the day with a relaxing bath with homemade bath salts and soaps made with herbs and citrus.
Winter brings the coziness of heavier fabrics and preparations for the end of the year. Yumiko makes a simple wreath you can hand at home or give as a gift and shows how she organizes her closet and drawers with her winter wardrobe. She saves her seeds and vegetable cuttings to start new plants indoors, and she prepares for the Japanese tradition of deep cleaning everything at the end of the year with her homemade cleaning solutions made with orange and apple peels. For the new year, she and her friends make vegetable sushi, and then she makes a big batch of miso she can use throughout the entire year.
Spring comes, and Yumiko pares down her wardrobe to let go of the things she no longer uses and to make room for some new pieces, like the linen scarves she makes to add more life to her outfits. For old pieces that are stained or yellowed, she dyes them so she can keep wearing them, and they’ll look like new. Yumiko fills her home with fresh flowers in unique dishes and relishes her tea ceremony, not the traditional ceremony like her grandmother taught, but the ceremony that means the most to her, where she can enjoy her tea with some small sweets. But for her, spring is mostly about the cherry blossoms. She revels in her walks where the flowers are canopies overhead, and she even pickles some of the cherry blossoms to eat throughout the year.
Yumiko’s life and style is, in her words, “joyfully minimalistic.” While that makes for truly beautiful photos, it would take a lot of time and energy to maintain it as a lifestyle. That being said, I loved spending time with this book. It was a restorative vacation for me (especially this week, with frigid temperatures nipping at my extremities every time I go out the door) as well as an opportunity to learn more about Japanese traditions and culture. And while I can’t see myself living as minimally as Yumiko chooses to, I still found projects and ideas I can use now to bring some more intention to my life and serenity to my space. Anyone looking to learn more about Japanese minimalism, about simplifying your life to live with more purpose, or about Yumiko and her Fog Linen shop will appreciate this beautiful book.
Egalleys for Simplicity at Home were provided by Chronicle Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.
