A disc shaped like a vinyl record spins gently under the eaves, ringing out a clear note like a wind chime. It looks like a tool for music and sounds like a tool for summer — two traditions folded into a single object.
In Kyoto, craftspeople working in kiyomizu-yaki ceramics and blown glass make these "sounding discs" one at a time. In place of grooves, the disc's face is carved with a pattern; a shaft lets it spin in the breeze; a small clapper called a zetsu strikes as it sways, producing the tone. The structure borrows from the traditional wind chime, but the record shape isn't just visual — the disc's thickness and the depth of the carved pattern both shape the sound itself.
The idea of a spinning disc
A record is a tool where a needle traces a groove to play music; a wind chime is a tool where wind sways a clapper to make a sound. This craft keeps only those two things — spinning, and making sound — and layers them into one form.
- In ceramic pieces, the thickness of the clay body and the firing temperature shape how the sound sustains
- In glass pieces, a thinner blow tends toward a higher, clearer tone — at the cost of fragility
- The carved pattern on the disc's face is decorative, but it also affects the surface area catching the wind, and so how easily the disc spins
Because each piece is made by hand, even discs from the same workshop and the same series ring out with slightly different tones. Many people choose an artisan's piece specifically for that — a sound that belongs to this one disc alone, something mass-produced chimes can't offer.
Why Kyoto suits this so well
Kiyomizu ceramics, Kyo-yuzen dyeing, Kyo lacquerware — Kyoto's craft tradition has always specialized in polishing everyday objects to the level of fine art. Wind chimes are no exception.
Kyoto has a long history of layering aesthetic sense onto tools meant simply to get through the summer heat. Before air conditioning, the sound of a wind chime was itself a device for creating a visual sense of coolness. The record-shaped chime sits in that same lineage while boldly updating the motif to fit comfortably as interior decor today.
More people are choosing to set one by a living room or workspace window rather than hang it under the eaves. The clear note it rings each time a breeze passes through offers the same kind of pause in a busy day that Yadom offers through scent.
If you're choosing one as a one-of-a-kind craft piece, it's worth listening to a few workshops' discs side by side before deciding. It's a category where prices often run high — but that reflects the time and handwork folded into a single disc.
