This time, we will be showing you around the workshop, focusing on "things that create craftsmanship."
At the workshop, staff in charge of processing and manufacturing work hard every day making umbrellas.
The job involves cutting and sewing fabric and stretching it onto the ribs of an umbrella; roughly speaking, it is similar to tailoring.
We strive every day to create products that are both beautiful and easy to use, so that our customers can enjoy rainy days in comfort.
There are many steps involved in making an umbrella, and each step requires special tools.
What we will be introducing here is the "tengami nuki" method.
When you open it and look up from the inside, you can see a part called the "tengami" (top paper). As the name suggests, the tengami cutter is a die used to cut the tengami out of the dough.
It was gratefully inherited from a retired craftsman, who purchased it over 60 years ago.
Of course, I'm still active.
This oddly shaped object is also a necessary tool for removing the tempura paper.
This is used as a support when removing the top paper.
It is firmly reinforced with metal fittings so that it can withstand swinging a large wooden mallet.
The tools needed to make an umbrella and the tools needed to use those tools.
The clearly defined division of roles, with each one having its own specialized tool, gives a sense of the breadth of craftsmanship in the past.
I feel a purity in the way they create things, not just by combining this with that, but by creating what is needed in the form that is needed.
I'm sure there were craftsmen who made each of these tools.
I feel like I finally understand the reason behind the vague warmth it exudes.
