Natural Materials and Design: Tsuruya Shoten

11 Nov 2008 Category: Business, Craftwork, Japan, Tradition

Natural Materials and Design: Tsuruya Shoten

Bending, tying, and weaving; some of the oldest manufacturing techniques around are used in producing rattan goods. These rattan goods are made by a Yamagata company called Tsuruya Shoten. While being a small local company, it has been awarded a Good Design Award, and its traditional techniques have successfully been blended with modern design sensibilities. Plus, they did it without any assistance from government or industry. We spoke to the company president about the thought process behind his company’s success.

Interviewed by Takafumi Suzuki
Translated by Claire Tanaka

I didn’t realize there was a rattan goods manufacturer here in Yamagata prefecture. Mr. Aida, how many generations have there been here at Tsuruya Shoten?

I’m the fourth generation. Originally, there used to be people around here who would go into the mountains and cut akebi and grape vines to sell to us. But ever since people stopped doing that, we’ve had to import most of our materials from Indonesia to make our products. That’s why we can no longer call our rattan goods manufacturing a true local industry. As far as I know we are the only rattan goods manufacturer, not just Yamagata, but in the whole Tohoku area.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that we used to see a lot more rattan products around.

Up until around 1970 or so people used to use rattan goods for baby furniture a lot. The bassinet would be a basket made of rattan, and there were child’s size chairs as well. Everyone used to use it for children’s goods because it wouldn’t do any harm if the child put it in his mouth since it was a natural material. Back then a lot of people would buy anything that was made of rattan. In the 1960s and 70s, products made of a certain type of rattan experienced a surge in popularity. It didn’t matter how much we made, we still couldn’t keep up with the demand.

Winner of a Good Design Award. The collaborative project with Tonerico’s Hiroshi Yoneya. Photo by Satoshi Asakawa

It was a time when your industry was really booming, then.

The problem when you have a wave like that is that next you wind up having inferior goods coming in from overseas. Japan wound up establishing a production base in Taiwan or someplace and that was the cause. The customers, they didn’t care if the rattan products they bought were of inferior quality or not. They just snapped them all up. And I think that’s the reason why over time rattan wound up with a bad image.

Are you involved in product planning and development at all?

In our case, back then we mostly just completed orders for companies in Tokyo and Osaka. When things were selling, that was easiest for us. But once things stopped selling, we started to feel we had to do something. Plus, when you’re just filling orders, all you’re doing is working to make a certain number of products by the deadline and there’s no fun in that.

Compared to cheap, shoddy goods, the subtlety and attention to detail is apparent in a single glance

These days I understand you’re making your own original products, but could you tell me when you started to get into that line of business?

For two years after I graduated university, I interned at a company called Yamakawa Rattan. That company had a lot of really unique, well-designed products, and the president of the company himself also had a high degree of knowledge about design. My time spent training at that company gave me the idea to try making original products here at Tsuruya.

Tsuruya works in collaboration with designers, isn’t that right?

We started participating in design exhibitions in the 1990s, and we started getting awards and suchlike as well. Also, we spoke with the people at the prefecture’s industrial technology centre and one thing we talked about was how to make products that would match the needs of people with modern city lifestyles. Through one of the people there we were introduced to Tonerico’s Hiroshi Yoneya, and we teamed up with him and did some product development. Traditionally, product design has been done by the craftsmen themselves, but it seems that we get stuck in a rut if we keep to that tradition.

Handmade in the purest sense. A multitude of tiny processes like this build up to result in the final product

I often hear tales of friction and strife in cases when a designer from the city comes to collaborate with rural traditional craftspeople. How was it for you?

We didn’t have any problems like that. Mr. Yoneya had just established his own office after going independent from his mentor Shigeru Uchida, and he really put his all into the project. As a result, the products we made received attention from both domestic and international media. Also, we didn’t really push too hard, saying “this is the way rattan should be.” If you do that, you’ll wind up with something that isn’t all that different from what you’ve been making all along. But it was very easy to work with him, and I hope we’ll be able to continue collaborating with Mr. Yoneya on more designer products.

Now, what kinds of things did the previous generations at your business pass down to you?

My father and grandfather, they were satisfied to just plod along making the same things at a steady pace. They told me, “You shouldn’t take on work other than your core business just because you’ve made a little money.” I do think it’s true, and I’ve taken that advice to heart. But one thing I can say, in my father and grandfather’s time it was a time when the country’s economy was growing so fast that you didn’t have to put in a lot of effort to do well. So I think I have to take what they taught me with a grain of salt. Nowadays, it’s not so easy to sell rattan products.

These unusual tools are used to make rattan products

Mr. Aida, what is it about rattan goods that you find appealing?

For me, products made of rattan have been a part of my life ever since I was a child. So they’re a very familiar thing to me, I’ve got an attachment to them. Plus, rattan requires a lot of effort to make into a finished product, so it takes an experienced craftsman to do the work. If you can make something truly good, you can attract as much attention as any big firm. That’s really got appeal for me.

But in these times, don’t you feel a little anxious sometimes?

I used to feel a sort of vague anxiety, I had a sort of crisis mentality, but I don’t feel that way now. I’d like to keep doing this work for as long as my body will let me. I don’t know, maybe until I’m in my 60s or 70s. I’ve begun to think that way. The economy may not be doing so well now, but I’ve changed my way of thinking.

A variety of rattan products hangs from the ceiling of the factory

How did you do that?

Now I’m seeing things come to fruition that I’d thought about when I was younger. “If only we could make more well-designed products under our own brand.” Now I’ve accomplished that. I predicted, “In the computer age, people will probably backlash by looking to surround themselves in handmade, natural products.” And that is happening too.

Your predictions came true.

In my father’s day, we had some tough times and almost closed down the business, but we managed to get through. That’s why I figure we’ll be alright from here on as well. I’m thinking that little guys like me making products by hand in rural areas don’t have to try and imitate big companies. We can just make our own original, special products and that’s good enough. By doing that, not only the consumers, but students and people like my daughters (laughs) they can begin to take an interest in handmade industries as well.

Tsuruya Shoten
Aioi-cho 7-11, Yamagata City, Yamagata

Genji Aida
Born in Yamagata City, Yamagata, in 1964.

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