Japonesque ~ San Francisco

The years he spent as an advertising copywriter in Tokyo undoubtedly taught Koichi Hara how to get a message across. He's doing that now in a three-dimensional way: Japonesque, his Jackson Square gallery of Japanese furniture, tableware, and art objects, some of them his own design, is like a sanctuary. "It's for mind and spirit, to give you calm," he says. "Not just for showing art." The pieces—ranging from a burned ca. 1700 Buddha rescued from an incinerated temple on Kyushu Island to glazed contemporary teacups to a table carved from an oak log—are so lovely and beautifully exhibited that some come here just to study his displays. $60 for a bamboo letter opener; $150,000 for a stone sculpture by the Japanese artist Masatoshi Izumi. 824 Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA 94133; 415-391-8860; fax 415-391-3530.

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