Kitakyūshū

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

On the northern tip of the island of Kyūshū in southern Japan, in Fukuoka Prefecture, facing Honshū across the narrow Kanmon Strait. It is the second-largest city in the prefecture, with a population of about 920,000.

In February 1963, by the merger of the five older cities of Moji, Kokura, Tobata, Yahata, and Wakamatsu. It was Japan's first designated city outside the original metropolitan corridor of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama, and Kobe.

The narrow waterway separating Kyūshū from Honshū, less than 700 metres wide at its narrowest point. It is crossed by the Kanmon Bridge, a road and rail undersea tunnel, a passenger ferry, and a pedestrian tunnel beneath the seabed.

A small district at Moji port preserving Taishō-era red-brick warehouses, the old customs house, and the original Mojikō station from the days when the port shipped coal from northern Kyūshū. The buildings now hold cafés, museums, and shops.

A private garden in the hills above Yahata whose trained wisteria tunnels bloom for roughly three weeks each spring, usually late April into early May. Entry is by advance ticket only, with strict daily visitor caps.

Yes. The works was inscribed in 2015 as one of the Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution, a serial listing of 23 sites that document the country's rapid industrialisation in the second half of the 19th century.

It travels well. The city is often skipped by foreign coverage in favour of Fukuoka or Hiroshima, so a piece that names it directly carries weight for anyone with family or work ties there. A Medium with a handwritten note from the studio reads as considered.

It sits well in Japandi rooms, in warm-industrial lofts where brick and steel already feature, and in Coastal-modern interiors that lean cool. The wisteria notes pair cleanly with pale oak and unbleached linen.

Yes. Japandi rooms have been moving away from generic Mount Fuji prints toward specific, lived-in Japanese places. A piece of a working port and castle city reads as more grounded than the usual choices, especially in a Medium or Large.

Above a standard sofa, a single Large or a four-tile Mural sits in proportion. Above a console, a Medium or a horizontal three-tile arrangement reads cleanly. A nine-tile Mural is built for a full feature wall.

Yes, in Dura Satin or Matte. Both finishes are scratch-resistant and stand up to the humidity and temperature shifts of a bathroom or a kitchen backsplash. Reserve Glossy for framed wall pieces in drier rooms.

A soft microfibre cloth and clean water are enough for everyday care. The colour lives in the ceramic surface beneath the finish, so it will not lift with cleaning. Skip abrasive pads and acidic kitchen sprays.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is curated by Reid Wender and produced by our family studio in Knoxville, Tennessee. We do not license the images and the tiles are hand-finished in-house before they ship.