Narration: Kensuke Ishii (craftsman and technical instructor)
Series: "Thoughts Passed Down"
Episode 1 – Portrait of Founder Takamasa Komiya –
Episode 2 – Meeting with the second-generation president, Takeshi Komiya –
Episode 3 – In a rapidly changing market, "Komiya Shoten's Western-style umbrellas" take shape -
Last time, we talked about our memories of the company's founder, Takamasa Komiya.
This time, I would like to talk about how I met Takeshi Komiya, the son of Takamasa and the second-generation president (current chairman) of Komiya Shoten, and how I, Kensuke Ishii, came to join Komiya Shoten.
Kensuke Ishii will be 78 this year. As both a craftsman and a staff member, Ishii has been with Komiya Shoten for more than half his life.
I moved to Tokyo from my hometown in Saitama Prefecture as part of a group job hunt in 1957 (Showa 32). I was 15 years old at the time.
I joined a Western-style umbrella manufacturing wholesale company in Nihonbashi. I came to Tokyo with high hopes of working for a company in Tokyo, but things didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. I lived in my husband's home and store, and began my days as a "boy" learning from the storekeeper. At first, I was just riding my bike around Nihonbashi running errands, but after more than 10 years of training at the umbrella shop, I was able to learn all the basics of making Western-style umbrellas. Manufacturing umbrellas is a mundane and time-consuming job, but I persevered through it.
It was during my training at this company that I met Takeshi Komiya. We ran into each other a few times at an umbrella shop in Nakamise, Asakusa, where we both had a wholesale business, and we became good friends. Takeshi Komiya was a bossy guy even back then. We also deepened our friendship in private life through our shared hobby of mountain climbing. We even went on a traverse trip together to Mt. Hakuba in the Northern Alps.
With the appeal of Koshu yarn dyeing,
Two people make a decision
We talked about umbrella making and changes in the market. As I talked with him, I realized that we had our eyes on similar markets (such as sandal shops). Our ideas were in agreement, so the conversation gradually turned to realistic strategies. "Ishii-kun, please come work for me," he invited me, but when I thought about the people at the company and my family who had been so kind to me, I couldn't immediately say, "Yes, I understand."
At Mount Hakuba in the Northern Alps
Meanwhile, the industry was undergoing a dramatic change. The main battlefield for selling Western-style umbrellas shifted from specialized retailers to mass retailers and station buildings. This was a time when they were known as the "three shops, three stores" (Nagasakiya, Ogiya, Jujiya, Yokado, Akafuda-do, and Kinkado). Major supermarket chains started selling very cheap umbrellas made overseas, which quickly became very popular. They were sometimes sold as "decoy products" or "featured products," and specialized umbrella retailers were quickly put in a difficult position and began to cry out in distress. We felt a great sense of crisis and began to talk about it frequently.
And finally, a decision is made.
My diary from that time contains the following passage:
"The encounter of two umbrella makers fighting for survival in a turbulent distribution economy.
The allure of Koshu yarn-dyed weaving brought Takeshi Komiya and Kensuke Ishii together."
(Original text)
At that time, the company I worked for was starting to offer a wide range of low-priced products as a countermeasure against mass retailers. This was not the direction that I and Takeshi Komiya were aiming for. We had no chance of winning if we tried to compete on the same level as the overwhelmingly large mass retailers. Instead, we thought we should narrow down our products and focus on manufacturing and selling high-quality products handmade by artisans using yarn-dyed fabrics (Koshu weave). Takeshi's thoughts were the same. So I joined Komiya Shoten. Under his guidance, I decided to take on the challenge of developing new sales channels.
It was the spring of 1974, when I was 28 years old.
Series: "Thoughts Passed Down"
Episode 1 – Portrait of Founder Takamasa Komiya –
Episode 2 – Meeting with the second-generation president, Takeshi Komiya –
Episode 3 – In a rapidly changing market, "Komiya Shoten's Western-style umbrellas" take shape -
