Isesaki City in Gunma Prefecture has long been known as a textile town. In its heyday, Isesaki was so popular that it accounted for half of the nation’s kasuri (patterned fabric) production, but today the kasuri makers have ceased to exist. Sadao Saito of “Kasuri Ryobo Saito” is working to keep the Isesaki kasuri tradition alive by passing it on as a Gunma Prefecture Hometown Traditional Craftsman.

Meisen made in Isesaki City, Gunma Prefecture, a textile town

Isesaki City, Gunma Prefecture, is located in the center of Gunma Prefecture and is rich in nature, connecting Gunma and Saitama prefectures across the Tone River. The city flourished as a sericultural area and has a long history of textile production, with textiles dating back to the 6th century excavated from an ancient burial mound.

The Isesaki kasuri, a simple yet chic kasuri or striped pattern, attracted attention. In the late Meiji period (1868-1912), a textile company was established in Isesaki, and power looms were introduced and some of the textiles were converted to factories. As the needs of the times changed, Isesaki kasuri became known throughout the country as “Isesaki Meisen” and production increased dramatically. From the Taisho era (1912-1926) to the early Showa era (1926-1989), “Isesaki Meisen” was so popular that one out of every ten Japanese women was said to wear it.

However, the times changed from Japanese to Western-style clothing. As the lifestyle of the Japanese people changed, production decreased and the number of producers also declined. Today, there are no more factories producing Isesaki kasuri. Sadao Saito of “Kasuri Workshop Saito” was so concerned about the situation that he decided to preserve the traditional technique of Isesaki kasuri.

One-man operation to preserve the traditional Isesaki kasuri weaving process.

Saito-san has been in the weaving business since he was a teenager, and at the age of 23, he set out on his own as a craftsman. Soon after becoming an independent weaver, Saito-san began working alone on the complicated Isesaki kasuri process, preserving the traditional technique and teaching it to a wider audience.

The reason for this is because, “In order to increase production volume and quality, the Isesaki kasuri process has been divided into separate operations, and people have been trained in each process to improve their skills. However, with the decline in production, the problem has arisen that if there are no successors in one process, products can no longer be made. He says.

Fearing that Isesaki kasuri would cease to be made, Mr. Saito decided to learn all the techniques of the Isesaki kasuri process, from designing patterns to kukuri (wrapping) and dyeing, and to become a person who can do all the processes to make his products.

While creating Isesaki kasuri, he teaches the techniques of all the processes he has learned to younger generations, and he also offers elementary school students in Isesaki City the opportunity to experience weaving Isesaki kasuri, thereby conveying the history and culture of the region.

Isesaki kasuri is protected by strict definition.

At one time, Isesaki kasuri took the world by storm. Production continued to decline, but fearing that this valuable traditional technique would fall into disuse, the company applied for and received designation as a national traditional handicraft in 1975. This led to the establishment of definitions and rules to clarify the differences between Isesaki kasuri and the kasuri of other regions.

The main definitions of Isesaki kasuri are “yarn-dyed,” “plain weave,” and “silk thread. In the dyeing process, we dye the yarn according to the pattern, using techniques such as kakuri kasuri, itajime kasuri, and nasen (textile printing) to create simple to precise kasuri patterns. The patterns of the dyed kasuri threads are adjusted by hand and woven to match the pattern.

Always striving to express new designs, Mr. Saito experiments by combining two or more techniques.

Weaving is a path of threads that keeps us in touch with the threads.

Mr. Saito says that he has to have perseverance in order to perform more than 10 processes all by himself.

I think you have to be a patient person to do the work of Isesaki Kasuri all by yourself. If you don’t think about what you really want to make and make it yourself, rather than imitating others, you won’t be able to improve your skills.

For example, when you want to make a stole, if you weave in thick yarn, a layer of air is created in the unevenness of the yarn when it is wrapped around the stole, making it warmer. Then, how can we put them in to create originality in terms of both function and design that no one else can imitate? Mr. Saito says the only way to solve this problem is to think about what you want to make in your mind and make it with your own hands.

People can teach you procedures and methods, but the only way to learn the “power” of technical skills is to try it yourself,” he says.

Mr. Saito has designed more than 1,000 kasuri patterns. He has kept all of them as proof that he actually created them with his own hands.

Warp and weft threads weave the vivid patterns

Of the yarn-dyeing techniques that are used to create designs by dying colors in the thread stage before weaving the cloth, Mr. Saito specializes in a technique called kakuri kasuri.

In kakuri kasuri, the part of the yarn not to be dyed is tied up with tape to prevent the color from entering the yarn. By using the warp and weft yarns made from the kasuri threads, the undyed and dyed portions blend together to create a unique pattern that looks as if it has been blurred.

Weaving with warp and weft threads that are both or either made with kasuri yarn and matching the pattern requires a high level of skill and experience.

The technique of dyeing the kasuri threads, and the use of the warp and weft threads and how they are used, create a kasuri expression that cannot be imitated by anyone else.

Mr. Saito spoke of the appeal of kakuri kasuri, and today he is the only person who has inherited the kakuri kasuri technique from Isesaki.

Keeping Isesaki Kasuri alive

The textile industry has declined with the passage of time, but Isesaki kasuri is undoubtedly one of the industries that contributed to the development of this region. Due to its complicated technique and time-consuming production process, the number of makers has decreased and there are hardly any people left who can make Isesaki kasuri using the traditional method. That is why Mr. Saito puts his skills and knowledge into his work and tries to convey Isesaki kasuri to as many people as possible as a valuable traditional craft.

The river flows fast and slow, and there is movement,” he says. I find things in nature that move interesting, and when I come into contact with nature, I am filled with endless ideas. I try to express patterns that are not regular, such as the way the kasuri pattern is blurred.

Not only Isesaki kasuri, but traditional crafts that require time and effort are disappearing in all fields amid today’s emphasis on efficiency. In such an environment, it would be reckless to carry out the time-consuming and labor-intensive process by oneself and pass it on to the next generation. Nevertheless, Mr. Saito’s desire to pass on the traditional techniques that have taken root and developed in the region to as many people as possible is reflected in Isesaki kasuri, a modern-day “meisen” (meisen).

The post Sadao Saito, Gunma Prefecture’s Hometown Traditional Craftsman, passes on the traditions and techniques of Isesaki Kasuri / Isesaki City, Gunma Prefecture first appeared on NIHONMONO.

Matsuya Sake Brewing Company is located in Fujioka City in southwestern Gunma Prefecture, bordering on Saitama Prefecture. The sake “Ruka,” which uses water from the Kannagawa and Ayukawa Rivers that gushes from the Mikabo Sankei mountain range, which is ideal for sake brewing, is attracting attention as an original sake created by the enthusiasm of the sixth generation brewer, Hiroyuki Matsubara, who is also the toji, the president of the company.

The Sixth Generation Envisions a New Gunma Sake

Fujioka City in Gunma Prefecture has a mild climate with mountainous terrain in the west and the Kanto Plain in the east. Matsuya Sake Brewery, which has been producing sake here since 1951, was originally founded as a rice wholesaler in Toyama Prefecture during the Edo period and began brewing sake in the late Meiji era. The brewery later moved to Fujioka City in Gunma Prefecture, which is close to the large market of Tokyo and blessed with a natural environment, and has been making sake that is suited to the locality of Gunma. After the previous master brewer retired due to old age, Hiroyuki Matsubara, the sixth generation brewer and president of the company, became the master brewer himself and has been involved in production ever since. With a production of only 250 koku, the small brewery produces sake that is made by hand in the traditional way, with a modern approach that is in tune with the times, offering a new kind of Gunma sake.

Returning to his hometown to fulfill the role of the eldest son, the sixth generation

Born and raised in a sake brewery, Matsubara was not interested in sake making as a child, and after graduating from college, he began working for a street brand to pursue a career in fashion. He decided to return to his parents’ home and take over the family brewery.

He said, “At one time I ran away from home to do something different from the family business, but since I am the eldest son, I decided to take over the family business. I had a sense of fulfillment from having done what I loved in the outside world, so I honestly thought I would return to my parents’ house and do my best.

At the time, however, we were in the midst of the shochu boom. The brewery mainly produced sake for celebratory occasions such as elections and weddings, but Mr. Matsubara felt that this alone would eventually make it difficult to run the business. However, he felt that this would eventually become too difficult to manage. Since he was taking over the brewery, he wanted to make sake that would be sold at restaurants, and he began to think about creating his own original sake at the brewery.

I want to make Gunma sake that fits the times.

Mr. Matsubara joined Matsuya Sake Brewery and began learning sake brewing from scratch at the brewery. At the same time, in order to create his own original sake, he went to study at the “Red Brick Sake Brewery” in Oji, Tokyo (now the National Institute of Sake Brewing), which has contributed to the development of sake brewing in Japan, and learned from senior brewers at Gunma Prefecture’s technical exchange meetings.

At the time, the generation older than myself favored dry sake, and many of the breweries around us were producing it. However, as the number of senior brewers I met at the engineer exchange meetings and the number of brewers of the same younger generation as myself increased, the trend of sake preferred in the market started to change. The fruity, aromatic sake that I like is getting more attention.

In his search for sake that suited the times, he went to restaurants recommended by a toji he respected, read books, and actively sought advice. He was advised that “marketing is important, but at the end of the day, your own feelings are important,” and he decided to create a fruity, fresh sake that was becoming popular and had a flavor he wanted to drink.

Deciding on a Brand Name from a Child’s Name Candidate

Mr. Matsubara decided that if he was going to make his own original sake, he wanted it to be fragrant and fruity, close to the kind of sake he had always dreamed of making. He imagined the taste of sake like “Jyushiyo” and “Houbiden,” which he had been shocked by when he drank them, and through a process of trial and error, he came up with the ideal name for the sake. When he brought the sake to the distributor, he was advised by the Matsuya Brewery to think carefully about branding if it was to be a new brand.

At the time, I had just had a baby, and I was thinking of a name for my child, and I found a name that fit the image of the sake I wanted to make, “Nagare Shine. We named our new sake brand “Ryu-ki”.

In addition to the existing brands “Tosei” and “Hiraijo,” the new brand name “Nagareki” has been added to the existing brands, and the brewery has launched its own brand. The words on the “Ryuki” label were written thousands of times by Mr. Matsubara himself, he says.

Sake brewing that takes advantage of the quality of the water

When making Nagareki, Mr. Matsubara’s first image was of a sake that would be enjoyed for its aroma. However, the sake produced in Fujioka did not have as much of an aroma as he had expected. The sake made in Fujioka, however, does not have as much aroma as one might expect, and yet it has a slightly citrusy, acidic flavor, he says.

We dig a well in the groundwater of the Kannryu and Ayukawa Rivers and use it as brewing water,” he said. The water is very soft, with a German hardness of about 6. For rice, we use Yamada-Nishiki and other sake rice suitable for our brewery, such as Niigata’s Gohyakumangoku.

At first, he had a hard time producing the sake he envisioned. As he repeatedly experimented with different types of rice and yeast and their compatibility with water based on various data, he gradually began to see changes in the taste of his sake. It was not the fragrant, fruity sake that he wanted to make, but he began to see the characteristics of Fujioka, a sake with a subdued aroma and a slightly citrus-like acidity that the region produced. I am now thinking of making “Ryuki” in a way that makes the most of this character.

Sake made with the same routine

Matsuya Brewery is a small brewery with only five employees, including part-time workers. Because of the small number of employees, the brewery takes a longer production period, and they are conscious of following the same routine every year to keep the rhythm of the brewing process.

Although we have a small number of employees, we produce sake in small batches, sticking to traditional handmade methods in order to produce higher quality sake. In particular, the pressing process is carried out slowly and under pressure using an old-fashioned machine that has been handed down from generation to generation, resulting in a clean and gentle sake quality.

The traditional technique of koji making, which easily affects the flavor of sake, is employed. Steamed sake rice is exposed outdoors and exposed to wind to evaporate the moisture, while controlling the temperature to the desired level. In order to allow the fermentation of unrefined sake to proceed slowly at low temperatures, the rice is pounded for more than 50 hours to allow the mycelium to reach the center of the rice, producing a clean koji that matches the quality of the sake.

He began to think about pursuing refined sake by using traditional koji making that is not influenced by trends, and by changing the flavor of the sake by combining the two.

Creating sake that can be handled by restaurants

In branding Ryuki, Mr. Matsubara says that he had a strong desire for the sake to be sold in restaurants. He also tried a different approach to the sales of sake than what the brewery had been doing until now.

We decided to limit the distribution of “Ryuki” to only those dealers who are willing to sell it to us. We chose only those distributors who were willing to sell our sake, and we are still doing business with them today.

Limited distribution has the advantage of increasing the value of the brand and differentiating it. However, it also has the disadvantage of not being able to market the product unless the distributors approve of it.

When Ryuki was just starting out, there were few dealers who would accept his brand, and he was sometimes turned away, told to “go study more. There was even a distributor who finally accepted our brand after three years of trying,” says Matsubara.

Ryuki,” a brand created with his own ingenuity

Nagare Kiki” was created with the image of a fresh, fruity flavor that would flow and shine in the mouth, and it is now turning out to be exactly what the name implies.

There are still things I need to work on, but after 17 years of making “Ryu-Kiki,” I think I’ve gotten about 50% closer to what I’m aiming for,” he said. I think I am getting better and better, but in order to raise it another 50 percent, I think I need more experience, more ideas, and more effort than I am capable of at the moment.

Two years after taking over the Matsuya Brewery, he launched his own brand, Ryuki, which became popular mainly among restaurants, just as Mr. Matsubara had hoped, and is now gaining fans among the general public as well. The experience of creating an original brand from scratch, which Mr. Matsubara has been dealing with ever since he became toji, has had a positive impact on the other sake that Matsuya Brewery has been making for many years, and the future of this small brewery is beginning to look brighter.

The post We want to create an original brand. Matsuya Sake Brewery’s passion for “Ryuki” / Fujioka City, Gunma Prefecture first appeared on NIHONMONO.

Gunma Prefecture, home to the World Heritage-listed Tomioka Silk Mill, has long been a center of the silk industry. One woman is fascinated by the history of the silk industry and the process of producing thread from cocoons. She is Hiroko Nakano, a Zaryo dyeing and weaving artist. Ms. Nakano has inherited the “Jyoshu Zaguri,” a thread-making technique that had nearly died out, and has been presenting works that meet the needs of the modern age while preserving the traditional technique.

Inheriting the traditional Gunma Prefecture “Jyoshu Zaguri” silk spinning technique

Sericulture has long flourished in Gunma Prefecture. In 1872, the Tomioka Silk Mill was established as a model factory for mechanical spinning, contributing greatly to the development of the Japanese silk industry. The “Jyoshu Zaruri” developed in Gunma Prefecture at the end of the Edo period (1603-1867) is a method of spinning cocoons using wooden tools to draw threads from cocoons.

A device called a kosha is used to wind the cocoon silk from cocoons boiled in hot water to the desired thickness while turning the handle of the zaruri.

In order to inherit the now rare traditional technique of “Jyoshu Zaruri,” Mr. Nakano first studied spinning techniques at Usui Silk Mills, one of the largest silk mills in Japan, which produces 60% of Japan’s silk yarn, before opening the Zaruri dyeing and weaving studio “canoan” in 2003.

Zaruri” culture takes root in Gunma

One of the reasons why Nakano, who was born and raised in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture, was attracted to zaruri in Jyoshu is the historical background of this region, where from the end of the Edo period until around 1965, women in each household made thread from cocoons and made clothing for their families as a handicraft for sericulture farmers in Gunma Prefecture.

In order to protect the quality of the silk, cocoons that were no longer suitable for the factory and could no longer be shipped to the factory were used for zaruri in Jyoshu, which was practiced by the women of the farming households. While the Tomioka Silk Mill and other mechanized mills have been mass-producing yarn since the Meiji Era (1868-1912), the farmers did not want to see the “loving family business,” which had been passed down in the local community, die out.

Another reason he was attracted to Jyoshu zaruri was the overwhelming difference in feel.

He said, “There is something special about the fluffy, smooth, airy, and uniquely supple texture of textiles made from threads drawn by hand while slowly turning them with a wooden tool.

The charm of spinning raw silk from cocoons by hand

Nakano’s workshop produces a wide variety of cocoons, from ultra-fine yarns to extra-thick yarns suitable for thicker fabrics such as tapestries, and by taking advantage of the characteristics of cocoons, she produces threads of various cilia (ratio of length to weight, which indicates the thickness of a fiber or thread) and textures.

In the usual process of making yarns, thin yarns are first made and then twisted together to the desired thickness, but Nakano decides on the thickness of the yarn from the beginning and adjusts it directly from the cocoon to suit the purpose while feeling the thickness of the yarn with his fingertips.

Kimonos, obis, scarves, and other fabrics all require a certain thickness of fabric. The process of winding threads directly from cocoons according to the thickness of the fabric, with an image of the product to be made in mind, is truly a craftsman’s art.

Creating richly textured products by hand

Generally, the process of making cloth is a division of labor. Silkworm farmers raise silkworms and ship cocoons, which are then made into yarn at a silk mill. The dyeing shop dyes the finished threads, and the weaving factory weaves the dyed threads into cloth. The general public rarely learns about the process of how cloth is made.

Mr. Nakano, who has always loved cloth, became interested in how cloth is made, and in the process of researching, he came across Jyoshu Zaruri. He was fascinated by the process of making thread from cocoons and textiles from the thread.

Designing the threads and weaving the cloth by himself

With a desire to produce silk fabrics designed from threads, he began to learn various techniques of thread-making, including Jyoshu Zaruri, which utilizes the characteristics of cocoons to produce various textures. I also became interested in dyeing threads, so I studied natural plant dyeing. After producing beautifully colored threads, I wanted to try my hand at making cloth, so I learned to operate a high loom, a type of handloom used for silk weaving, and began to weave cloth. I learned to dye cloth and weave by hand on a loom through trial and error, although I sometimes learned from local dyeing and weaving experts.

Having mastered the techniques of thread-making, dyeing, and hand-weaving one after another, Nakano began making kimonos, obis, and scarves that emphasize the texture and quality of the threads, which could not be achieved through the division of labor.

He dyes threads ground from cocoons with herb dyes and weaves them by hand into fabrics. I am fascinated by the depth and mystery of the consistent cloth-making process, which is done by hand as much as possible, using only natural materials.”

Dyeing with plants and trees, focusing on natural products

Nakano says that the charm of herb-dyeing lies in the fact that any combination of colors obtained from nature can be harmonized in a mysterious way.

He says, “I sometimes go to the mountains myself to gather materials for dyeing. I have more opportunities to get in touch with nature, and even with the same dye, the finished color differs depending on the environment in which it was grown, the season when it is dyed, the quality of the water when it is boiled, and other factors.

The Jyoshu Zaryo yarn, which has excellent dyeability, is dyed in natural colors by herb-dyeing, using only natural plants. When these yarns are woven on a high loom, they have a rich and deep expression depending on the fineness and color of the dyeing process, resulting in a beautiful silk fabric that is both fluffy and smooth, a quality that can only be achieved by handwork.

Preserving traditional techniques while making products that can be used in modern life

The silk industry that Mr. Nakano is engaged in is generally regarded as a niche industry that does not attract much attention.

Until now, the value of machine-made threads was that they were more neat and beautiful, but recently, more and more people understand the quality of handwork and the desire to preserve traditional techniques, and we are doing business with people with whom we have such relationships,” he says.

Because he adjusts the thickness of the thread as he designs, he often receives custom-made orders, but he also sells his own creations at exhibitions and private shows. Mr. Nakano believes that having more people use his zarrow thread creations will help pass on the traditional technique and convey the importance of the cultural background.

Aiming to create a traditional culture that can be worn easily

Mr. Nakano, who handles everything from yarn making to dyeing and weaving by himself, uses traditional methods to perform all processes by hand, which naturally limits the number of pieces he can make.

He says, “I want many people to use my products, but because they are not mass-producible, it is difficult for me to reach my customers.

Because they cannot be mass-produced, we aim to create products that will be used for many years to come.

Kimonos are characterized by their unprecedented lightness, and obis are highly regarded for their elasticity and ease of fastening. Scarves are also light and warm, and have a comfort that is different from machine-made products.

Although only a small number of scarves are made, the longer they are used, the more they become more comfortable to wear, as evidenced by the large number of repeat orders from people who have used them once.

Passing on skills and the possibilities of traditional crafts

Nakano has been an inheritor of Gunma Prefecture’s traditional crafts for more than 20 years, opening the Zaruri Dyeing and Weaving Studio and launching his own brand to preserve and disseminate the techniques and culture of Zaruri yarn-making in Jyoshu.

In order to promote awareness of traditional techniques and culture, I not only exhibit and sell my work at gallery exhibitions, but also demonstrate the Jyoshu Zaruri technique.”

In the future, he hopes to create a place where the process from thread to fabric can be conveyed in a more realistic manner. He said emphatically that he would like to expand awareness of traditional techniques and convey the charm of Jyoshu Zaruri to more people by having people who come into contact with silk fabrics there learn about and experience the world of sericulture and silk industry, which they had not known before.

The post Ms. Hiroko Nakano, a Zaruri dyeing and weaving artist who has passed down the Zaruri tradition in Jyoshu / Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture first appeared on NIHONMONO.

Gunma Prefecture has developed as a country of sericulture. Takasaki City, in particular, has a history of the development of dyeing techniques, as when Ii Naomasa, the lord of Minowa Castle, moved to Takasaki Castle, dyeing artisans also moved with him. In Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture, there is a workshop that dyes Edo komon. It is Aida Senko Co., Ltd. established by Masao Aida, the predecessor of the company. Currently, his apprentice, Aida Airo, has taken over the business and continues to produce works that convey the tradition, technique, and spirit of Edo komon.

Creating Edo komon that live on today

Aida Dyeing Co., Ltd. in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture, is a workshop that carries on tradition and craftsmanship in the field of “dyeing” in Gunma Prefecture, where industries related to silk fabrics have developed.

His predecessor, Mr. Masao Aida, who honed his skills as a migratory craftsman and returned to Takasaki to establish Aida Dyeing Co. in 1977, was recognized as an important intangible cultural property holder designated by Gunma Prefecture, and was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun in 2011 and the 60th Commemorative Award at the 60th Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition in 2013, as the leading expert on Edo komon In 2013, he received the 60th Commemorative Award at the 60th Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition. At the same time, he devoted himself not only to training successors of Edo komon artists, but also to training successors of Ise-katagami, an essential part of Edo komon.

After Masao passed away in 2017, his apprentice Airo Tanaka inherited the name and techniques of Aida, and under the name “Aida Airo” continues to make products that convey the beauty of Edo komon made with Isekatagami and the excellence of hand-dyeing. Just as his master Masao did, Airo is also creating works that blend in with the lifestyles of modern people.

Precise and delicate Edo komon

Compared to woven fabrics, in which the threads are dyed first and the pattern woven, dyed fabrics, in which the fabric is dyed afterward, can express more delicate patterns. Among these, the Edo komon, dyed using the katazome technique that has been handed down from the Edo period (1603-1868), uses a particularly precise and detailed pattern paper. It is said that a high level of skill is required to dye patterns so fine that they appear plain from a distance, and the finer the pattern, the higher the value of the dyed item.

It is said that the Edo komon originated in the Edo period (1603-1867), when samurai wore a plain kamishimo (kamishimo) with a clan pattern on it as a samurai’s kamishimo (kamishimo).

Since the Meiji period (1868-1912), the Edo komon has gradually changed to reflect the times. With the motto of “not only valuing tradition, but also creating Edo komon that matches the times,” Airou’s master, Masao, started blotch dyeing himself and devised his own unique technique that went beyond mere dyeing.

Collaboration with a stencil carver

In the workshop, all the processes of dyeing Edo komon are done by hand using the precious Ise-katagami inherited from Masao.

Before his death, Masao once said, “An Edo komon artist has no skill.

Even if an Edo-komon artist has the skill, he cannot do any work without katagami. I think it is my mission as a craftsman to preserve katagami for the next generation and to encourage katagami carvers in Ise to make as many katagami as possible.

True to his words, Masao frequently visited Shiroko-cho, Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, where Ise katagami is produced, and even begged Mr. Hiroshi Kodama, a living national treasure, to make katagami for him. Later, he received valuable katagami from Kodama and asked a kata carver in Shirako-cho to make the katagami he wanted, thereby nurturing and preserving the valuable katagami techniques essential to Edo komon.

Fascinated by the charm of Edo komon

Mr. Aida Airo’s first encounter with Edo komon was at his coming-of-age ceremony. She was drawn to the charm of Edo komon after attending a coming-of-age ceremony wearing an indigo-dyed Edo komon kimono and haori, dyed by Mr. Aida’s mother, Masashi Naka, who is the youngest brother of Mr. Aida Masao.

I didn’t know anything about kimonos at the time, but I remember that the kimono I wore for my coming-of-age ceremony was very comfortable and it was the best day of my life,” she said.

Unable to forget the excitement he felt at that moment, after graduating from college, he knocked on the door of Aida Dyeing Co. and became Masao’s apprentice. He spent his apprenticeship watching his master’s back, learning the techniques of the heart, and sincerely confronting himself.

He says, “I learned not only technical skills, but also the practical use of the master’s experience.

It did not take long for Airou, who quickly absorbed Masao’s teachings, to emerge as a master of Edo komon, thanks in part to his natural sense of style and dexterity.

What I want to express in the age of 2025

Inheriting Masao’s belief that “what we make must be used in accordance with the times,” Airou is also actively challenging himself to create new works while preserving traditional techniques.

In 2025, when fewer people wear kimonos on a daily basis, Mr. Airou wants to create items that go well with both Japanese and Western clothing, and he is taking on new challenges, such as dyeing an organdie stole with Edo komon (a traditional Japanese pattern).

My master told us to think about what we, living in that era, want to express now. At the same time, he also told us that we cannot express anything unless we have the basics.

He was taught that, as a craftsman, he should be able to express what he wants to express only when he has the skills to dye whatever he is asked to dye.

One of the most important messages that Masao has passed on to me is that when I receive an order to make something like this, I should not become a craftsman who says, “I can’t do it.

The pattern will break someday.

Edo komon requires a steady and precise technique, as a single pattern is used 70 to 90 times to dye a single piece of cloth. At the same time, the katagami must be able to withstand such a large number of uses, and it is important that the stripes are not crushed and that the glue is applied evenly and cleanly.

Ise katagami used for Edo komon is made of strong and well-preserved Mino washi coated with persimmon tannin, and patterns and designs are carved on katagami made by pasting three or four layers of alternating longitudinal and transverse fibers together to increase the strength of the paper.

The shimabori technique is so delicate that only a few craftsmen are able to carve it, and the aging of katagami craftsmen and the lack of successors have become serious problems.

Aida Dyeing still has many of the valuable Ise katagami that Masao raised and protected. If used, they become worn and their durability deteriorates, and one day they will break and become unusable. When dyeing Edo komon, Airo takes great care not to put too much strain on the stencils and trusts in his own skills.

While preserving traditional techniques, he also challenges new expressions.

Masao Aida, who has mastered the Edo komon technique in dyeing, served as a member of the judging committee for the “Japan Traditional Crafts New Works Exhibition” and the “Japan Traditional Crafts Dyeing Exhibition” during his lifetime, and has worked hard to pass on and develop the Edo komon technique while building a close relationship with pattern makers. Having witnessed Masao up close, Airou says, “One day, I will be able to see the precious kata in his workshop.

I would like to use the valuable katagami in the workshop in a way that I am satisfied with,” he said.

Some of the katagami in the workshop are so elaborate that one wonders if there are craftsmen in the world who have carved such katagami. Looking at such formidable katagami, one gets excited just thinking about how they can be used to create interesting works of art. At the same time, he says that the fact that such katagami are still in the workshop makes him feel great appreciation for his master’s greatness and his achievements.

Dyeing organdie with Edo komon

In addition to traditional Edo komon kimonos and fabrics, Airou now produces scarves made of 100% silk organdie, dyed with a single pattern to avoid monochromatic colors.

Thin and soft organdie cannot be patterned unless it is attached to a board. The fabric is so thin that at first it tore.

At first, it was difficult to peel off the board because it tore, and the lightness of the fabric made it easy to slide off the board, and it also made it stick. We then devised the quality and quantity of glue and the method of application, and finally succeeded in attaching the Edo komon pattern to the organdie.

For Edo komon with fine patterns, the artisan’s skill is to dye the pattern so beautifully that the seam between the pattern and the mold cannot be seen. The same is true for thin and light organdie. After successfully applying the Edo komon to organdie, Airo used the patterns in his workshop to add various colors and patterns.

I think this is also Edo komon of 2021.”

Making things that are used by people according to the times

While preserving the traditional dyeing techniques of Edo komon, Airo is now taking on the challenge of new expressions.

I believe that culture must change along with the changes in our lives, because culture is something that is connected to the way we live at a given time. I think it is important to create works that people want today, not just to change nothing because they have traditional value.

While preserving traditions, such as dyeing on thin fabrics, the company is also working to develop new techniques for materials and dyeing. Living in 2038, he says that they need to make not only traditional Edo komon kimonos, but also stoles, pocket chiefs, and other items that match the times. From the works created by Mr. Airou, one can feel the “iki” of Edo that is in tune with the times, which can only be expressed by a craftsman with traditional skills.

The post Inheriting the master’s techniques to create works that blend into modern life. Aida Airou, Edo komon master / Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture first appeared on NIHONMONO.

Matsuida-cho, Annaka City is located in the western part of Gunma Prefecture. Mt. Myogi, known as one of the three most scenic spots in Japan, rises above the town, and the beautiful scenery created by its rugged rock surface is a well-known symbol of the town. At the foot of the mountain, surrounded by magnificent nature, stands Usui Silk Manufacturing Co. The Usui River, a tributary of the Tone River, flows nearby. This clean and abundant water supports the production of high-quality raw silk.

An instrumental spinning mill still in operation

The Tomioka Silk Mill, a symbol of modern Japanese industry, was registered as a World Heritage Site in 2014. The same machinery is still in operation at Usui Silk Manufacturing, which continues to produce raw silk from cocoons.

Usui Silk was established in 1959 by farmers in the surrounding area as the Usui Silk Farmers Cooperative Association. Since then, the company has been in operation for more than 60 years. In recent years, due to the decrease in the number of members of the agricultural cooperative, the company received investments from the prefecture, Annaka City, and Tomioka City, and became a joint-stock corporation in 2017, which it continues to do to this day.

At its peak, there were more than 1,800 yarn manufacturing companies in Japan. Since then, the number has continued to shrink, and the number of active instrument mills in operation in Japan today has dwindled to only two. One of them is Usui Silk.

The term “silk spinning” refers to a series of operations to produce raw silk from cocoons produced by silkworm farmers. About 70% of cocoons produced not only in Gunma Prefecture but also in other parts of the country are brought to Usui Silk Mills. In other words, Usui Silk is the largest silk mill in Japan, boasting the largest amount of raw silk production in the country.

Domestic Raw Silk Production in Critical Condition

The current state of the silk industry, however, is not good. According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, domestic raw silk production, which exceeded 6,000 tons in 1989, dropped to only 9 tons in 2023. Looking at raw silk imports, 175 tons of raw silk was imported in 2023. In other words, domestically produced raw silk accounted for less than 5% of the total amount of raw silk circulated in Japan.

The reason for the significant decrease in the scale of the industry can be attributed to the decline in market competitiveness due to inexpensive imports from China, Brazil, India, and other countries, as well as to the decrease in demand for silk products due to the spread of synthetic fibers. Adding to this situation is the decrease in the number of sericultural farmers.

Sericultural silk used to be practiced in many areas south of the Tohoku region, but now only small-scale production areas remain, mainly in the Kanto and Tohoku regions, and the number of sericultural farmers is very small. Moreover, the number of silkworm farmers is aging, and the shortage of successors has become a serious problem throughout the country. Gunma Prefecture accounts for approximately 40% of the nation’s production of cocoons.

Focusing on domestically produced raw silk

Usui Silk is committed to “pure domestic production. Even if cocoons and raw silk imported from overseas are used, as long as the silk products are processed in Japan, they can be called “domestically produced”. However, the raw silk produced by Usui Silk is different from mere domestic silk. The share of raw silk produced from domestically produced cocoons is said to be less than 1%. This high-quality pure domestic raw silk is mainly shipped and sold for use in kimonos.

The Process of Raw Silk

Mr. Toshiyuki Ando, the representative of the company, showed us around the factory. He said that cocoons received from silkworm farmers are dried with hot air immediately after receiving the cocoons to prevent the chrysalis inside from hatching, and then stored in a cocoon warehouse.

Selection of cocoons

In order to produce high-quality raw silk, cocoons are sorted to remove cocoons made by two silkworms, dirty cocoons, and cocoons with deformities. The cocoons that have been stripped are processed into threads and silk cords. Incidentally, the chrysalis inside the cocoons is used for fertilizer and Chinese herbal medicine, and “silk has nothing to throw away.

Boiled cocoons

After selecting cocoons, cocoons are boiled in hot water or steam to soften them in order to improve the loosening of the threads. Over the course of about 20 minutes, the cocoons pass through six different rooms, including hot, cold, and steam.

Reeling (Soshishi)

The process of taking the thread ends from the boiled cocoons and twisting several threads together to achieve the desired thickness. This is the core process of a silk mill. The cocoons are carried in hot water, shaken out with a small broomstick, and then set in an automatic reeling machine, which pulls out a single, invisibly delicate strand from the tangled threads. When the raw silk becomes too thin, the machine senses the fineness and automatically adds cocoons, and the raw silk continues to be reeled at a constant thickness. When the thread breaks, the staff manually reconnects it in a skillful manner.

Agedashi (turning back cocoons)

The raw silk is wound onto a small frame by an automatic reeling machine, and then rewound onto a large frame with a circumference of 150 cm while being dried. This is done to make it easier to handle later.

Finishing

The finished domestic raw silk is bundled and twisted to make it ready to be handled. Several more are bundled, packed in boxes, and shipped.

Automatic reeling machine is the fruit of Japanese technology

The automatic yarn reeling machine used is said to be a machine manufactured by Nissan, an automobile manufacturer, in the 1980s. In the past, automobile manufacturers such as Toyota and Nissan were world leaders in the manufacture of machinery for the textile industry, and the high level of technology developed at that time has been passed on to today’s automobile industry. Automatic yarn reeling machines are now so valuable that they cannot be replaced or even have their parts replaced. The staff members maintain the machines themselves and continue to use them with great care.

Why did Usui Silk Manufacturing survive?

Why has Usui Silk continued to operate despite the drastic decrease in the number of silk mills in Japan? The reason is that in Gunma Prefecture, there are only a few sericultural farmers left, and the groundwork has been laid to continue to protect the breeding of silkworms. Another reason is that we handle Gunma’s original breed of silkworms, which are not affected by market prices. Another advantage of Usui Silk is its ability to produce a wide variety of yarns in small lots. The company is able to produce raw silk of various thicknesses and respond to customers’ requests in detail. This would not be possible without high-performance machines and good technicians.

I believe that continuing to produce good yarn is the key to keeping the business going,” he said. If this place were to disappear, the sericultural farmers would also go out of business, so we take our responsibility seriously,” says Mr. Ando.

What Future Should Usui Silk Manufacturing Aim for?

However, “Looking five to 10 years from now, we will not be able to survive by just producing raw silk,” says Mr. Ando, who feels a sense of crisis and is searching for a new pillar of revenue. In recent years, the company has been focusing on developing original products using raw silk, selling familiar silk products such as underwear, socks, and body towels, as well as skin care products using silk protein extracted from raw silk.

By continuing to provide high-quality silk products, Usui Silk has become a valuable player in Japan’s declining sericulture industry. In the future, Usui Seisaku will continue to develop products to meet needs in Japan and abroad, strengthen its brand by utilizing traditional technology, and collaborate with other fields to pioneer the future of the traditional industry of silk spinning with new technology and flexible ideas.

The post Preserving and passing on Japan’s silk industry and silk culture. Usui Seishi, the largest silk mill in Japan / Annaka City, Gunma Prefecture first appeared on NIHONMONO.

Located in the southeastern part of Gunma Prefecture, between the Tone River and the Watarase River in Ora-gun Ora-machi, Vegeta Co. Among the Chinese cabbages grown in this region, only those that meet strict standards are marketed as “Murabijin,” a brand of Chinese cabbage, successfully differentiating it from others.

Farming is interesting. I want to prove it.

Ora-machi, located in Ora-gun, Gunma Prefecture, is in an area known as the Tosuma area, where the Kanto Loam layer, formed by volcanic ash deposited by the eruptions of Mount Akagi and Mount Haruna, is widespread. This area is blessed with black earth (organic soil) derived from the volcanic ash, and the high quality of this soil, which is rich in organic matter, combined with the cold wind called “Akagi Oroshi,” which blows down from Mount Akagi, makes for the healthy growth of delicious vegetables. Among them, the Chinese cabbage grown here in the winter is large, tender, and sweet, and has become a specialty of Ora Town.

While many farmers in the town grow their own specialty, there is a brother and sister farmer who grows a higher quality White Chinese cabbage with the same level of sugar content as mandarin oranges and pears compared to the average White Chinese cabbage. They are the Matsushima brothers of Vegeta Co.

Despite opposition, they quit their jobs and entered farming

The Matsushima family has been farming for generations. Akinori Matsushima and Keisuke Matsushima grew up watching their grandfather working in the fields. Despite their fascination with the fields, after graduating from college they worked as office workers, but when their grandfather became ill, their younger brother Keisuke took over the entire farm and began farming.

My brother started farming first, and two years later, I decided to take over farming myself, so we started farming together in earnest,” recalls Akinori, the elder brother.

He became a farmer because he thought there was great potential in agriculture at a time when the lack of successors to farming families due to the aging of the population is becoming a problem. At the time, however, the size of the farm he took over was about 1/100th of what it is today. It was really a small start.

When I first took over the farming business, no matter who I talked to, I was always told that being a farmer was not the way to go.

Still, he believed in the possibilities of growing Chinese cabbage, and he began a trial-and-error process to see how he could produce “better-tasting” Chinese cabbage.

The fun of farming is that the more you do, the more you get out of it.

Originally, the climate of Ora-cho is suitable for growing Chinese cabbage. In winter, there is little rainfall, and a strong northwesterly mountain wind called “Akagi Oroshi” blows continuously, making the land dry. The temperature drops below freezing in the mornings and evenings, and the added stress of “cold” causes the Chinese cabbage itself to store sugar to prevent freezing and become sweeter as a defensive instinct. This dryness and low temperatures make the climate suitable for producing high-quality Chinese cabbage.

In addition, the soil is also strong. The volcanic ash soil, known as “kuroboku,” has both water retention and permeability, which are contradictory properties, due to the soil’s densely packed structure, which allows for good drainage and fertilizer retention. This makes it easy to grow Chinese cabbage, which requires a lot of energy in the field.

The soil is suitable for Chinese cabbage, but if we continue to grow it, the power of the field will gradually decrease, so to maintain the power of the field, we plant cattle manure and green manure made from the plants themselves and add organic matter to keep the microorganisms moving,” says his brother, Keisuke.

Even if you grow the same variety of vegetables in the same climate and soil, you will not get the same flavor. That is what makes it so interesting.

We are particular about not only soil preparation but also seedling cultivation, meticulously managing water from the moment the seeds are sown and using our own seedling culture medium.

The Chinese cabbage grown with love in this way is mainly shipped as “Oubijin,” a brand of Chinese cabbage from the town of Ora.

We want many people to know about our branded Chinese cabbage.

The Matsushima brothers are particular about soil preparation and seedling cultivation, and grow high value-added Chinese cabbage such as “Oubijin,” a brand of Chinese cabbage from Ora-machi. They started farming with no experience at all, but once they were able to produce stable shipments of high quality vegetables, they began to think that they would like to tell the world how wonderful their lovingly grown Chinese cabbage is.

Originally, Ora-machi was a production area of high quality Chinese cabbage, but it was not well known to the world, so they started their own SNS to let many people know the characteristics of their brand of Chinese cabbage. They have also taken the lead in media appearances to promote the hakusai of Ora-machi. Thanks to their efforts, the name recognition of the branded Chinese cabbage is slowly spreading, and Ora-machi is beginning to be recognized as a production center of tasty, visually appealing, and impactful Chinese cabbage.

Oubijin” has established itself as a regional brand. Among them, the Chinese cabbage produced by the Matsushima brothers has gained a reputation for being particularly sweet. They began to explore branding their own Chinese cabbage, including sales channels.

Cultivating their own sales channels and creating a new form of agriculture

The Matsushima brothers have done everything they could think of because they started farming with no experience: producing high-quality Chinese cabbage, branding the region, and creating their own brand. Based on their experience as businessmen, they established an agricultural corporation, Vegeta Corporation, in 2019, believing that “managing” agriculture in a way that ordinary farmers do not will lead to the future development of agriculture. Under its own strict internal regulations and special management, the company will perfect its house brand of “yellow-core Chinese cabbage pole” and develop its own sales channels through direct contracts with supermarkets.

Nowadays, there are EC methods such as “Eat Choku” where farmers sell their produce directly to consumers, but when Vegeta was first established, the only sales channel was wholesaling designated varieties of vegetables to agricultural cooperatives. Having a website as an agricultural corporation itself was a rarity. While shipping to the market, Vegeta began to deal directly with supermarkets that had seen its website and inquired about its products.

We were absolutely confident of the deliciousness of the product, so we just wanted people to try it once and understand the merits of our Chinese cabbage,” he said.

These steady activities began to bear fruit little by little after the TV appearance.

Balancing farmland and business scale

After establishing the company, the Matsushima brothers expanded their farmland to increase the size of their farm and actively hired full-time employees and trainees from overseas to help develop their staff. In order to promote what the Matsushima brothers consider “new agriculture,” one of the challenges is to secure farmland. This is because Vegeta currently owns about 180 farmlands scattered over a 15-kilometer stretch from east to west.

When a newly expanded field is adjacent to abandoned farmland, there are many problems, such as insects and trees growing in the field and hitting the tractor. We want to take care of the land before that happens, but we are legally prohibited from cultivating other people’s land without permission, so we are currently unable to do anything about it,” said Akinori.

The inability to purchase adjoining fields has prevented the accumulation of farmland, leaving only a mosaic of farmland, which makes it difficult to manage and costly to travel long distances to do the work.

The problems are piling up, but sometimes things turn out well, depending on the way things are done,” he said. We make mistakes, but we want to move forward while keeping data on our failures, and it is motivating when you realize that your actions are improving things,” says Keisuke.

He would like to move away from the conventional farming style, in which what he produces is put on the market and priced, and grow into a farmer who can maintain the scale of his business in response to what his customers want.

Changing the public’s perception of farmers

While the sugar content of most white radishes is about 6 degrees, the sugar content in the center of Vegeta’s white radishes is 11 degrees at its highest point. It is called a “fruit-like vegetable,” but the challenge for the future is how to pass on the cultivation methods, such as soil preparation and fertilizer design, to the next generation of growers.

Some people grow the same variety in the same area, but it is not sweet at all. I would like to keep solid data in agriculture, which has always been very sensible, and in the future, with an eye on IT farming, I would like to further improve the quality of Chinese cabbage and increase the unit price.

The brothers started farming as amateurs with a small field, and now they are the biggest farmers in town, with a field about 100 times the size of the one they had then.

Farming is a wonderful profession that is interesting, cool, and profitable. I want to tell as many people as possible that farming is a dream job that will brighten the future of the community.

The Matsushima brothers, who deliver vegetables that shock and impress, will continue to enliven the local farming industry and communicate the fun and potential of agriculture.

The post Aiming to improve the status of farmers. Agricultural Reforms Taken on by Vegeta Corporation / Ora-machi, Gunma Prefecture first appeared on NIHONMONO.

In Kiryu City, Gunma Prefecture, which has long flourished as a textile town, there is Kasamori Corporation, a long-established embroidery workshop founded in 1877. In this historic town of high quality fabrics and textiles, Kasamori supports the world’s fashion designers with its embroidery, and continues to take on new challenges, such as its own brand “OOO” (Triple OOO).

Original products created from the fusion of skilled craftsmen and technology

Kiryu City, located in the southeastern part of Gunma Prefecture on the border with Tochigi Prefecture, is known as “the East Kiryu for Kiryu, the West for Shijin” and has a history of prosperity as a textile town since the Nara period (710-794).
Kasamori Co., Ltd. was founded as a weaver of obi belts in this textile town, where the main industry is the traditional craft of Kiryu weaving. With the changing times, the company introduced a Jacquard embroidery machine in 1962 and changed its business from weaving to embroidery. The company has produced a number of high-quality products based on the high technology created by the fusion of skilled craftsmanship cultivated in the textile industry and the technology of embroidery machines using laser cutting and other techniques.
The company’s fourth generation chairman, Yasutoshi Kasahara, is determined to take on challenges with an eye to the future, rather than taking a defensive stance typical of long-established businesses.

Transformation of business from Japanese to Western-style clothing, in line with the changing times

As the times changed, Kasamori’s business was forced to shift from Japanese to Western-style clothing.
The Obi business requires a lot of purchasing, and it is like buying thread and selling it. On the other hand, embroidery requires only a small amount of money to purchase, but it is possible to compete on the basis of technical skill. My father told me at the time that even if sales were small, profits would remain,” Kasahara explained.
When he first started his embroidery business, he embroidered one-point embroidery on socks, and gradually began to work on Japanese and Western-style clothing as well. Slowly but surely, he established his original embroidery technique, and in 2006, he developed his own technique, “Kasamori lace” chain embroidery.
After that, when the company exhibited at exhibitions in Tokyo and Paris, its clothing accessories and embroidered products using its advanced technology attracted much attention, and the company began to receive inquiries from designers and apparel makers in Japan and abroad.
Embroidery supporting the world’s fashion designers behind the scenes

In the 1960s, Kasamori switched to the embroidery business, and at the same time Japanese fashion designers began to appear in Paris.
Issey Miyake, Kenzo Takada, Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo, and many others were leading the Japanese fashion industry with their collections in Paris. At that time, while we were working in mass production, we were also working with fashion designers such as Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo, who were gaining worldwide attention.”
Kasamori’s embroidery, which is precision machine embroidery but has the warmth of handmade embroidery, has attracted designers and apparel makers from Japan and abroad. Kasamori’s embroidery, with its precision machine embroidery and handmade warmth, attracted the attention of designers and apparel makers in Japan and abroad, and the company’s technology solved various problems and was valued as a high-quality clothing accessory and embroidery product.
The trust thus fostered has never wavered, and the company continues to do business with popular brands to this day.

He always says, “If you need help with embroidery, call me.”

Kasahara says, “At that time, I always told designers who were looking for advanced techniques, starting with collections, to contact me if they had any problems with embroidery. Then, when they wanted to make something difficult, they would ask me for advice.
When we delivered the product, she was very pleased that it was exactly as she had imagined.”
Kasamori is highly skilled in machine embroidery using a variety of techniques. Kasamori’s greatest strength lies in the fact that the addition of embroidery’s unique diagonal variation to the vertical and horizontal thread movement cultivated in textiles has changed the degree of freedom of thread movement and expanded the possibilities of his work.
More than anyone else, Kasahara enjoys and is amused by the way the direction of the thread and the way the thread is stitched to the embroidery design, and by the way embroidery expression changes depending on the movement of the thread.

Launching your own brand, with your own price

Mr. Kasahara says that when he was actively participating in exhibitions in Paris, he had a memorable business meeting with a world-famous brand with whom he went to the headquarters to talk.
He told me that high brands go out of their way to raise the value of the brand itself by charging high prices and doing lots of promotions in order to increase profits.
Hearing this story, Mr. Kasahara thought that he would not be able to survive in the future if he did not put his own price on what he made. Mr. Kasahara thought that if he did not put his own price on what he made, he would not be able to survive in the future, and he began to think about having his own brand.
After a long period of trial and error, he decided to create his own brand in earnest in 2008. In 2010, he launched his own brand, “OOO,” which he had longed for.

「A new concept of “embroidery freed from cloth

Yoichi Katakura, the current brand manager of “OOO,” was entrusted by Mr. Kasahara with the mission of establishing his own brand after joining Kasamori Corporation in 2005.
I was honestly at a loss when Mr. Kasahara told me that he wanted to create a new value of embroidery that would excite both the creator and the buyer through embroidery. We didn’t know where to start, so we just tried to find our strengths and started by looking for something that would differentiate us from other companies.
Kasamori originally had experience making accessories for a domestic fashion brand on an OEM basis. Mr. Katakura thought that by combining their technical ability to handle difficult embroidery with accessories, they could bring out their strengths.
The idea of “embroidery free from cloth” came to him, and while making various products, he settled on accessories made with thread, which were well received by customers.

Patented spherical accessories

In order to create a completely new option of “thread accessories” for daily wear, Katakura aimed to create something that would make people wonder “how far you can go with just thread.
I wanted to create something made of thread, but that didn’t feel like thread. In order to betray it in a good way, or to eliminate the cheapness unique to thread, if the necessary thread was not sold, we made it ourselves from the thread, and developed the technology while involving local craftsmen.
We decide what we want to make first, and if we don’t have what we need, we take on the challenge from the point of making it. This is the very essence of “OOO,” which creates accessories with free thinking and without being bound by preconceived ideas, and the three tenets of “ideas, materials, and techniques.
The “three-dimensional embroidery” was completed through a fusion of precise programming and craftsmen’s handiwork in order to make jewelry that is closer to real jewelry using only thread. This technique of creating a sphere using only thread is patented by “OOO” and is a major strength of the company.

Technical capabilities to turn the “impossible” into the “possible

Kasamori Lace, in which chain embroidery machines are used to embroider on water-soluble non-woven fabric, and then the non-woven fabric is washed away with hot water, leaving only the threads, is a technique that was arrived at after repeated attempts. It is an original creation only possible with the experience and sensibility of a craftsman who can adjust a sewing machine programmed according to the pattern, even taking into account the temperature and humidity of the day.
When Mr. Katakura wanted to make an accessory like a pearl necklace using only silk thread at “OOO,” he was repeatedly told, “It is absolutely impossible. Nevertheless, he continued to think of ways to make the “impossible” and created a patented manufacturing method that only “OOO” could do. This is where Kasamori’s experience of turning “impossible” into “possible” came in, as he turned to the embroidery business and used his skills to increase profits.
Not only preserving tradition, but also taking on the challenge of creating new value is what will open up the future. Kasahara-san’s vision of co-creating with local craftsmen to create exciting products is the driving force behind Kasamori’s embroidery, and the company will continue to innovate to create original and appealing products like “OOO” for the entire region.

The post Supporting World Fashion from the City of Textiles, Kasamori Corporation’s New Challenge / Kiryu City, Gunma Prefecture first appeared on NIHONMONO.

In Numata City, Gunma Prefecture, Yoshizawa Ryoichi is the third-generation owner of a 100-year-old finger joint shop. Finger jointing is a traditional Japanese technique of assembling furniture and fixtures without nails or metal fittings, using only wood. Yoshizawa combines this finger jointing with lacquer work to create “lacquerware,” challenging himself to create new products that value human connections.

A 100-year-old traditional woodworking shop takes on the challenge of creating new works.

Yoshizawa Ryoichi, a master woodworker, learned the craft from his father, who founded “Yoshizawa Shibori Shop” in Numata City, located in the northern part of Gunma Prefecture, approximately 100 years ago. While working under his father, the second-generation master, Yoshizawa sought to enhance the wood grain of his pieces by incorporating lacquer techniques. At the age of 18, he spent a year apprenticing at a lacquer shop in Tokyo’s Higashi-Mukojima district. At the time, he used the “fuki-urushi” technique, which involves applying raw lacquer to the wood and then wiping it off with cloth, a method commonly used in woodworking to beautifully highlight the grain of the wood. He applied lacquer to the woodworking pieces made by his father and himself.

In his early 40s, while working on a commission basis, fulfilling orders as requested, his father, the second-generation owner, passed away. As he was reflecting on his approach to his work and preparing to take over the family business as the third-generation owner, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck. This disaster made Yoshizawa realize the importance of human connections, prompting him to reflect on his relationships with past customers and begin asking himself how he wanted to approach his work and what kind of craftsmanship he aspired to create moving forward.

Unbound by the traditional framework of finger joint work, he embraced a more free-thinking approach.

“When my son was in his third year of high school, during a career counseling session, his teacher asked him, ‘What do you plan to do in the future?’ He replied, ‘I want to take over the family fingerboard shop.’ That one sentence made me think he was willing to work with me. It made me want to create various things together, enjoying the process, and leave something behind. It really moved me.”

For Yoshizawa, who was considering ways to rebuild relationships with customers, his son’s declaration to take over the family business inevitably changed his perspective on work.

With many of his regular customers growing older, he also felt anxious about whether his son could continue doing good work in the future. He wondered if it was better to continue making pieces for his regular customers in the same way he always had, or if he should use the remaining years of his craftsmanship to create pieces freely. After much consideration, Yoshizawa began searching for a way to build a future together with his son.

What he arrived at was a “process-oriented approach to craftsmanship” that values dialogue with those involved, exchanging ideas with customers, and creating works together.

Yoshizawa says that he feels the greatest joy when creating works freely, unbound by the traditional framework of finger joinery. His shift from a craftsman focused on preserving tradition to a creator who enjoys expression has become a new charm of Yoshizawa Finger Joinery, leading to the acquisition of new customers.

The power of lacquer, an adhesive used since the Jomon period—Made with Earth

Yoshizawa revisited lacquer as a medium to create works freely, unbound by the constraints of traditional woodworking techniques.

“Basically, I use lacquer on wood. Lacquer has the role of organically connecting various materials, and in the Jomon period, it was also used as an adhesive. Therefore, I freely attach various materials using lacquer.”

As the words suggest, he uses rice husks, stone powder, and even items like pottery and iron coated with lacquer. Around this time, he also began seriously experimenting with “colored lacquer,” which involves mixing pigments into lacquer to create various colors.

“Lacquerware crafts are often referred to as ‘lacquerware,’ but since ‘lacquerware’ refers to the work of lacquer artisans, I prefer to call my work ‘lacquer craft.’ I value both woodworking and lacquer work equally, so I refer to my work as ‘lacquer craft.’”

The intersection of woodworking and lacquer connects various regional elements into works of art, which in turn connect people to objects. These connections then link people to one another, creating a larger, more profound wave of connection.

Focusing on a select clientele to pursue the work I truly want to do.

Currently, Yoshizawa is very selective about who he works with. As a result, he is increasingly involved in collaborative projects with chefs and architects from Japan and abroad, where he makes proposals as a woodworker and works together with them to create something.

“Rather than being asked to make something specific, I’m getting more jobs where I’m asked to join a project and come up with something interesting (laughs).”

Yoshizawa’s approach to creating things involves having extensive conversations with clients to capture their desired image and then bringing it to life through creative ideas. By focusing on a specific target audience, he is able to connect with people he truly wants to work with, and his work is expanding beyond genres.

“I prefer jobs where people say, ‘That’s interesting! Who made that?’ rather than explaining techniques or skills. I’m really enjoying being able to do that kind of work right now.”

Creative challenges begin with encounters with people.

Yoshizawa’s encounter with a chef who inspired him to focus his work on specific targets was a pivotal moment in his career. It all began when Chef Kotaro Noda of “bistrot64,” a restaurant in Italy that has earned two Michelin stars, asked a friend to guide him around the Tone Numata area in search of ingredients.

Yoshizawa, who has always loved sake, food, and people, and had accumulated knowledge over the years, accompanied Chef Noda on a two-night, three-day tour of farms in the area, introducing him to the local produce. As expected, the tour was a great success, and eventually, the conversation led to the idea of Chef Noda hosting a one-day dining event at a ski resort in Minakami Town. At that dining event, Yoshizawa’s work was used as tableware and was highly praised by Chef Noda.

The conversation continued about creating something new together, and when Chef Noda became the executive chef at Ginza Shiseido’s “FARO,” he commissioned Yoshizawa to create lacquerware boxes for serving dishes. The creative world of a restaurant where Italian and Japanese cultures overlap, and where food, tableware, and space come together. Discussing how to design the tableware that would play a part in this world, and brainstorming ideas with Chef Noda, the time spent exploring a worldview that only the two of them could create was incredibly enjoyable.

Not overdoing it, not underdoing it.

Meeting Chef Noda inspired me to narrow my focus, which has led to opportunities to create dishes that enhance various types of cuisine. I now receive requests from chefs of different genres and also seek advice from them, expanding my repertoire of dishes I can create.

“Creating and using tableware is about not overshadowing the dish itself. Tableware always accompanies food, and to highlight the chef’s creativity, the tableware must not overpower the dish. Finding that balance is the most important and challenging aspect of my work.”

I don’t find much interest in pieces that overemphasize traditional craftsmanship, making the “traditional” aspect too prominent. On the other hand, if something is lacking, it leaves me with the regret of thinking, “I should have done this a little differently.” When I can strike that middle ground, it feels the most satisfying to me.

“Working with chefs from various genres, I realize that my clients are very creative. Whether they are Western or Japanese chefs, they understand their own style and are seeking new ways to express themselves in exciting ways.”

To narrow down the target audience while still meeting truly interesting people, he holds an exhibition called “Autumn in the Sake Brewery” once a year, gathering craftspeople from within and outside the prefecture in an old sake brewery. There, in addition to showcasing works, she invites chefs to prepare daily changing lunches and dinners, allowing participants to experience the interplay between food and tableware, thereby gaining a deeper understanding of their use and feel. Even chefs who have since earned Michelin stars continue to participate.

What she wants to do upon reaching her 60th birthday

During the winter, Minakami Town in Gunma Prefecture is known for its heavy snowfall. Within this town lies the Fujiwara district, where a traditional wooden tray called the “Fujiwara Bon” was once crafted. This tray features a wooden surface carved with radial patterns using a chisel. The craft began in the mid-Edo period as a way to utilize the abundant local timber and generate income during the winter months. Some of the pieces were even presented to the imperial family and are now coveted by antique enthusiasts.

However, a few years ago, the last artisan passed away, and the tradition came to an end. Yoshizawa-san, who had seen the Fujiwara Bons in his youth, initially found them unappealing and thought they were outdated crafts that had fallen out of favor. However, after turning 40, he began to see their beauty and launched a revival project as he approached his 60th birthday.

Additionally, Yoshizawa feels that people who engage in craftsmanship tend to value the first-person perspective. Therefore, he creates opportunities to think in the second and third persons, fostering a collective discussion about new challenges beyond the third-person perspective through interactions with others.

“I believe that without carefully observing old things and interpreting their beauty in your own way, you cannot create something new. There are many techniques from the past that are no longer practiced today but can serve as references.”

He incorporates old and traditional elements as one of his expressive methods, blending them with images derived from conversations with clients. His unique style, rooted in traditional techniques and modern sensibilities, harmoniously combines a sense of coolness that is both intuitive and timeless.

The presence of colleagues who help him expand his horizons.

Since starting to work with Chef Noda, Yoshizawa has had more opportunities to think and talk about “food and agriculture.” New encounters have led to interesting interactions with people and connections with many stimulating individuals. Through projects with these people, he feels that his world is expanding.

“As I get older, when I talk to younger people, I want to have conversations that expand their world as someone who is older. However, I feel a growing fear that the people who can broaden my world are gradually disappearing.”

He emphasizes that interacting with people who can make the unknown world interesting and broaden one’s perspective is absolutely essential for someone who creates things.

When traditional techniques and inspiration from peers come together within Yoshizawa, another fascinating work unlike anything seen before will undoubtedly emerge.

The post The world of lacquerware made from finger joints and lacquer. The challenge of finger joint craftsman Ryoichi Yoshizawa / Numata City, Gunma Prefecture first appeared on NIHONMONO.

Chigusa Kono is a glass artist who makes everyday vessels and artworks at her home and studio in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture. Ms. Kono uses burner work, a technique rarely seen in glassmaking, in her creative activities. Her thin, delicate glass vessels and motifs drawn on their surfaces using dots and lines are attracting attention as works of great originality.

Becoming an Independent Glass Artist

Chigusa Kono, a glass artist born and raised in Gunma Prefecture, now has a studio in Takasaki City. She says that she first became interested in glass because “I admired a glass artist in one of Takayoshi Honda’s short stories and wanted to become a glass artist.
Later, he had the opportunity to watch a TV special on glass making, which accelerated his interest in glass.
Since no one around him, including his family, was involved in art, let alone glass, and he did not know how to become a glass artist, he decided to enroll in Tama Art University, aiming for an art college where he could study glass art.

College years, when I learned the basics and began to see what I wanted to do.

While in school, Mr. Kono did not study under anyone, but learned glass from various people. The term “glass art” conjures up images of blown glass, such as air-blown and mold-blown glass, and cut glass, in which patterns are created by cutting the surface of glass with a grinder. However, Mr. Kono became interested in burner work, in which glass tubes are heated with an oxygen burner to create works of art, and he learned from various people and tried it out himself to find a way to do it.

At the time, there was no resident instructor teaching burner work at the university he attended, so he went to workshops outside of the university every time he had a break and continued to create his own works through trial and error based on what he learned there.

Three years of study at the Utatsuyama Craft Workshop in Kanazawa

In 2013, after completing the Master’s Program in Glass Crafts at Tama Art University, he resumed his creative activities, saying, “I want to get serious about making glass again,” despite having once been employed. At that time, he applied for and was successfully accepted as a technical trainee at the Utatsuyama Craft Workshop in Kanazawa, a comprehensive organization for the inheritance, development, and cultural promotion of excellent traditional crafts in Kanazawa, which has long been known as a city of crafts.

During my three years at the studio, I was given the opportunity to exhibit and sell my work while creating, which was truly a valuable experience,” says Kono.

His various experiences broadened his horizons, and with the addition of his experiences at the workshop to his previous creative activities, he gradually began to receive feedback for his works. By the end of his three years at the studio, he had decided on the direction he wanted to take and began his life as a glass artist.

Burner work difficulties

After repeated trial and error until he was able to establish his own style and give shape to his images, Kono developed a unique technique of making vessels using burner work, painting motifs centering on plants on the surface with glass to create his own unique world view.

Once the design is determined, I make the base of the vessel by machining a thin cylindrical glass tube so that I can hold it with both hands,” he says.

The process of making vessels by burner work begins with cutting a 150-cm glass tube to a convenient length, melting it over a fire, processing it, and preparing the glass as a material by himself.
Blown glass, which accounts for the majority of general glass vessel making, requires a melting furnace to melt the glass and a long blowpipe to breathe into to form the glass, which requires a considerable amount of space for production and often requires a large studio or dedicated factory.

However, Mr. Kono’s style, in which he processes glass using a hand-held burner, does not require a large workshop and can be completed entirely in a single room in his home.

3 pieces per day is the limit for creativity.

Kono’s works express the beauty of glass with their delicate thinness and creative designs. The secret to this delicate thinness is the use of heat-resistant glass. Because heat-resistant glass contains a higher percentage of silica sand than blown glass, it requires a higher temperature of about 2,000°C (2,000°F) than the 1,300°C (1,300°F) needed to melt ordinary blown glass. Even so, heat-resistant glass has little risk of breaking during the process, making it suitable for creating the thin, delicate vessels that characterize Kono’s work.
Breathing into the glass tubes he has prepared himself, he creates the base of the vessel according to the rough sketches he drew at the beginning of the process.
From the creation of the base vessel to the design of the surface, the work of constantly rotating the glass tube while heating it with a high-temperature burner is hard on the eyes and shoulders.

It takes less than two hours to make one glass, but it is extremely strenuous, so I limit myself to about three pieces a day.

In order to maintain quality, he says he can work more efficiently if he takes a good rest and does it the next day.

Glass world created by dots and lines

Once an imagined vessel is created, motifs are drawn on the surface with dots and lines of glass to express a unique view of the world. Many of the creative designs on the surface are plant-centered motifs, and some of them have been made into series.

I like plants,” he says. Insects and animals are good, but I often use plants as motifs, such as grass, trees, flowers, and seeds.

To draw a motif on the surface of a vessel with glass, he heats the vessel that will serve as the base, melts the tip of a decorative glass rod, and places it on the vessel so that the glass rod becomes a dot. Then, the decorative glass dots blend with the base vessel, and the glass is cut in the fire to confirm the fusion of the glass dots and the base vessel. This process is repeated, and when the motif has been painted with glass to a certain extent, the entire piece is heated with a burner, blown in, and the borders are blended before the painting is done again.

Similarly for the glass lines, a glass rod melted with a burner is placed on the warmed vessel, and the glass rod is placed on the vessel while pulling it as if to paint, and the borders are blended by blowing into it.

When the vessel is made according to the rough sketch and the surface design is finished, the glass tube on the mouth side is pulled and dropped in the fire until it tears off naturally, and then the mouth is widened and finished off in an orderly fashion.

Vessels for daily use and art works

Among glass artists, there are those who make utilitarian vessels and those who make works of art. While many people specialize in one or the other, Mr. Kono continues to create both.

There are those who pursue one or the other, but I find it more balanced for me if I do both. Making art works has a positive influence on the vessels, and making vessels for daily use has a positive influence on the art works, so I make my works without making too much distinction.”

He says that he sometimes receives requests from galleries and department stores to exhibit both vessels and artwork.

Ms. Kono says, “I am not bound to show my view of the world through art. Her flexible attitude toward glass also contributes to the appeal of her work.

You are free to use and perceive the vessel in any way you wish.

One of Mr. Kono’s works is a drinking vessel whose mouth is finished with glass dots. He says, “It started out as an impulse to make the mouth look straight by adding or subtracting glass dots to make the mouth look straight.

Surprisingly, people say that the dots are very pleasing to the palate, and it becomes a habit (laughs).

Many people are surprised at the gap between the treatment of the drinking spout, which matches Kono’s design of a massive European antique goblet, and the thin, delicate vessel. Furthermore, the heat-resistant glass makes it easy to use for hot beverages, making it useful as a daily-use vessel.

Recently, a sushi restaurant owner in Malaysia said he saw on social networking sites that a sushi chef in Malaysia was serving his sushi with soy sauce in Kono’s stemmed glass and a brush of soy sauce on the sushi he had just made.

He said, “It’s interesting to think that something born in this small workshop has traveled all the way to Malaysia to fulfill its role, as if something I made is traveling there.”

It is interesting to think that my work has traveled all over the world, and that the people who purchase it can use it in their daily lives. This is one of the ways that Kono hopes his works will be used in everyday life by the people who purchase them.

I want to place artwork in an architectural space.

Mr. Kono creates art works by applying sandblasting, gold, pearl, and platinum coloring. In the future, he would like to have more opportunities to have his artwork placed in some architectural spaces, such as the entrances to condominiums and hotels.
I am very happy to have private collectors buy my artwork, but I would like to have more opportunities to show it to many people in public spaces,” he says.
In the architectural spaces he is currently involved in, he creates small groups of artworks and combines them, considering the size and sparseness of the pieces, and then installs them while keeping an eye on the balance of the pieces.
Kono says that his desire to create this kind of work, and his hope that the people who receive his work will feel this way, has been gradually increasing in recent years.

At first, my goal was to be able to make a living just by making glass,” he says. From there, my life has gradually become more stable, and my goals are increasing with each new thing I am able to do.
As a young glass artist, Ms. Kono is now attracting attention at galleries and department store exhibitions and sales events. In his creative activities, he would like to continue to produce a good balance of everyday-use vessels and works of art. He also hopes to create works of art that will enrich the lives of those who receive them.

In the future, I would like to challenge myself to create new works while keeping my own world view in mind, so that my works can be seen in public spaces as well.
Using a unique technique called “burner work,” Kono’s thin, delicate vessels are decorated with decorative ornaments, giving her works a unique worldview and making them even more distinctive.

The post Chigusa Kono, a glass artist with delicate vessels made by burner work and bold designs first appeared on NIHONMONO.

Kawaba Village, located in the northern part of Gunma Prefecture, is a farming and mountain village with a population of about 3,000, formed by four first-class rivers, including the Usuene River, which flows from Mount Muson (Hotakayama). In Gunma Prefecture, which is not known for its rice production, Kawaba Village’s Koshihikari “Yukihotaka” and a new variety “Yudai 21” have attracted attention for their high quality, winning consecutive gold awards at the Rice and Food Taste Analysis Competition, one of the largest rice competitions in Japan.

Phantom rice” grown in a perfect environment for rice cultivation

Kawaba Village, located at the southern foot of Mt. Muson, is a rural village with a wide landscape, where rice cultivation has flourished since ancient times and many of the villagers are involved in farming. Kawaba Village’s rice has long been distributed and consumed exclusively locally, thanks to the combination of cold melt water from Mt.
For a long time, the rice in Kawaba Village was distributed and consumed only locally, and the villagers were never aware of how tasty the rice they ate was.
However, when Kawaba Village chose the path of self-reliance without merging with neighboring municipalities after the Heisei Era merger, it began to feel a sense of crisis that the village might decline if agriculture, the village’s main industry, did not also become self-reliant.
The entire village began to take on the challenge of making Kawaba’s rice, which they consider delicious and enjoy eating, into a brand and delivering it to as many people as possible in order to make the village’s agriculture industry independent.

Yukihotaka” and ‘Yudai 21,’ which have won gold medals at numerous competitions in succession.

Kawaba Village’s Koshihikari rice, which had been distributed only locally, was to be branded and delivered to a large number of people. To achieve this, the villagers decided to brand the rice they had originally produced as “Yukihotaka” (snow hotaka), since it was grown with melted snow from Mt.
We decided to see how our delicious “Yukihotaka” rice would be evaluated outside of the village, so we entered it in the “Japan’s Best Rice Contest” for the first time in 2006. We entered it for the first time in 2006, and it suddenly won third place, which was a very good result. It gave us a lot of confidence that our rice would be recognized not only by ourselves but also by others,” recalls Satoshi Kobayashi, a rice grower at Yukihotaka Co.
Since 2007, the cooperative has entered its rice in one of the largest rice competitions in Japan, the “Rice and Taste Analysis Contest,” and has received high evaluations every year, which gave them even more confidence. The company now sells, collects, and bags rice, and has established a system for quality control of Kawaba-mura brand rice through the company.

Growing rice true to the basics, taking advantage of local characteristics

The International Comprehensive Section, which is the main section of the “Rice and Taste Analysis Competition” with over 5,000 total entries, has produced around 18 gold medal winners every year. The fact that 12 gold medalists and 19 gold medal winners have been awarded in the 17 years since the first entry shows how well suited this land is for rice cultivation. In order to make the best use of the land’s environmental advantages, the farmers are always striving to produce better rice by trying slightly more challenging experiments every year while adhering to the basics of rice production.
One such challenge is the “Yudai 21,” a new mutation of Koshihikari rice developed by Utsunomiya University.
In 2020, “In October, we had a series of high temperature days, and for the first time in five years, ‘Yukihotaka’ lost the gold medal in the Rice and Food Taste Analysis Competition, which had won the gold medal eight years in a row. At the same time, many of the rice varieties were cracking or breaking after harvest. This made us feel a sense of crisis that it might become difficult to produce Koshihikari rice in Kawaba Village in the future.
In light of the recent abnormal weather, Mr. Kobayashi and other rice growers decided to do something about it, and as a joint project among Yukihotaka, Kawaba Village, and Kinshokai (a group of Gold Award winners), they tried to produce “Yudai 21,” which is harvested later than the Koshihikari rice they are currently growing, and is resistant to cracks in the rice body. The first year, the rice and food quality was improved. In its first year, it was awarded a gold medal in the Rice and Taste Analysis Contest. Recently, “Yudai 21” rice from Kawaba Village has won consecutive gold awards in the same contest.
Without this challenge, the village would not have been able to find a new rice variety that is compatible with the local weather and environment, and the consecutive gold medals in the Rice and Taste Analysis Contest that Kawaba rice has established might have remained unbroken.

Gunma’s rice goes from being unknown to being recognized around the world

The “World’s Best Rice,” planned by Toyo Rice Co., Ltd. and recognized in the Guinness World Records as the world’s most expensive rice. Yukihotaka” has become a well-known name with its spectacular awards in numerous competitions, including being selected as one of only six producers to be used as the raw material for the ‘World’s Best Rice’. Now, “Yudai 21” is also attracting attention as a new rice produced in Kawaba Village.
When we created the “ Yukihotaka” brand about 20 years ago, no one knew that the rice was from Gunma. We didn’t have the image of a rice farm, so it was very gratifying to win an award and have people from all walks of life become aware of our rice.
It was also the Rice and Taste Analysis Competition held in Kawaba Village that changed Kobayashi’s mind about rice cultivation, he says.
Three of my seniors in Kawaba Village won gold medals at that competition. When I saw that people I met regularly were recognized as the best rice growers in Japan, I thought that I could do it too. I wanted to produce that kind of rice.
Receiving recognition at the competition has become one of his goals, and has led to improved quality and awareness among all producers in the village.

Kawaba Village Rice Center” built by the village for rice quality control

What is important in producing good-tasting rice is 70% the land environment, 20% production management, and the remaining 10% the post-harvest system. No matter how good the rice is harvested, the quality may deteriorate depending on the subsequent management.
Kawaba Village has few so-called large-scale farmers, and because small farmers grow rice close together, it is difficult for individuals to make expensive capital investments. Therefore, the village invested in large-scale facilities and built the “Kawaba-mura Rice Center,” which can be used jointly. This is another challenge for the village to survive as a production center.
Kawaba Village is a mountainous area, so each rice field is small and the harvest is not large. In order to compensate for these disadvantages with quality, we have created a system that allows each producer to concentrate on rice production while adjusting the balance between quality, price, and harvest volume,” said Hoshino Takashi Hoshino, managing director of Yuki-Hotaka Co. which operates the Kawaba Village Rice Center under designated management,” says Takayuki Hoshino, managing director of Hotaka Co.
Since the price of rice purchased varies greatly depending on the grade and score of rice, the Rice Center dries and prepares rice for each producer, and feeds back information on each rice crop to encourage individual improvement and creativity.

Yuki-Hotaka Corporation,” which promotes rice cultivation through public-private partnerships

Rice growers in Kawaba Village can concentrate on rice production with peace of mind, both from the hard side of knowing that if they bring their rice to the rice center, it will always be purchased, and from the soft side of being motivated to produce delicious rice by the awards they have received in competitions. The producers themselves are self-reliant through farming, and the weakness of low yields is solved by producing high quality rice.
Ltd. is also responsible for the sales of rice purchased at the Kawaba Rice Center, the price, and the development of sales channels.
The high evaluation of the rice in various competitions has spread throughout Japan, and the value of “”Yukihotaka“” as a brand of rice is increasing. Now we buy it from producers at about 1.5 times the market price, and from there we put it into distribution, so when it hits store shelves, it costs about twice as much as regular rice,” says Hoshino.
In order to maintain this high quality, high added value, and high unit price, cultivation workshops are held about six times a year to unify producers’ intentions and cultivation techniques.
Ltd. controls the quality and sets the price of “Yukihotaka” so that the growers of Kawaba Village’s brand-name rice can earn a fair profit. This is one successful example of how the public and private sectors have cooperated to create a unique local system and systematize the village’s agriculture so that it can become self-supporting.

Realization of Kawaba Village’s slogan “Agriculture + Tourism

The slogan that Kawaba Village adopted 50 years ago for its village development is “Agriculture + Tourism.
Currently, the Roadside Station Kawaba Denen Plaza, one of the top-class roadside stations in Japan, is a popular tourist spot, attracting approximately 2.5 million visitors a year.
In the area of “agriculture,” the company has challenged the “ Yukihotaka” competition and built a strong brand by improving the quality and name recognition of its products. They have also realized high quality, high value-added products at high unit prices, and solved the problem of small rice paddies and low yields in mountainous areas.
The farmers have established their own production cooperative, which then operates as a joint-stock company and manages the brand-name rice, including its sales. As long as the rice of Kawaba Village continues to maintain its high quality and strong brand power, the rural landscape of the village will be well protected by the villagers. This creates a virtuous cycle that attracts even more people to Kawaba Denen Plaza, a roadside station, as they come to be comforted by the beautiful countryside.
Both agriculture and tourism are the result of making the most of the land’s original charm and environment, and this will continue to be a source of pride and confidence for the villagers in the future.

The post Yuki Hotaka Co., Ltd.’s rice farming reforms began with the brand rice that won consecutive gold medals in competitions. first appeared on NIHONMONO.