The Journal

Japanese tools, the people who make them,
and the stories behind your sewing table.

Kiyoshi Nonaka working at a bench in the Nonaka workshop — Kiyoshi Nonaka at work. Photograph: Nonaka Seisakusho.

In focus · Nonaka

The people behind the Japanese screw punch

Step inside the workshop and discover the making story behind this distinctive tool.

Explore the stories

Choose a story category All stories25 Needles & thread4 Scissors & cutting7 Patternmaking & marking9 Sewing & repair5

Glassworkers in Cohana’s Kinari collaboration feature. Photograph: Cohana / Kinari Glass.

Regional craft, gathered in a sewing box

Sewing & repair

A worker tending thread-processing machinery in DARUMA’s official factory feature. Photograph: Yokota / DARUMA.

Following a thread through Shiga and Kyoto

Needles & thread

Historical photographs, needle packaging and tools in Misuya Chubei’s official heritage collage.

Inside a Kyoto needle-making tradition

Needles & thread

Kiyoshi Nonaka working at a bench in the Nonaka workshop

The people behind the Japanese screw punch

Scissors & cutting

Choosing threads from a fabric box in Eight Needles’ NONA photography.

Plant-dyed colour and the world of temari

Needles & thread

Students sewing in an archive classroom photograph. Photograph: Bunka Fashion College.

A century of learning to make clothes

Patternmaking & marking

Participants making things together in KAWAGUCHI’s event report. Photograph: KAWAGUCHI.

Sewing, repair and the pleasure of making

Sewing & repair

Shozaburo tailor shears with their presentation box.

The scissor maker, the tailor and the braider

Scissors & cutting

Clover’s original 1925 store, identified in its centenary archive. Photograph: Clover.

From an Osaka shop to the sewing table

Sewing & repair

Yoshio Okada, OLFA’s founder, pictured in the company’s invention story. Photograph: OLFA.

Yoshio Okada’s search for a fresh cutting edge

Scissors & cutting

Saijiro Endo II, identified in KAI’s historical exhibition. Photograph: KAI.

The Endo family and a cutting-tool business

Scissors & cutting

An Okane craftsperson at the bench, from Eight Needles’ maker-post cover.

Okane Seisakusho

The bamboo-ruler workshop in Koka

Patternmaking & marking

A frame from the Jinbutsujirushi maker story on Eight Needles’ Instagram.

Jinbutsujirushi

The company behind the tailor’s chalk

Patternmaking & marking

Sōho needles arranged in their labelled wallet.

A needle brand with a sewing-supply heritage

Needles & thread

A Sodeyama chalk pencil in use on fabric.

Supplying the apparel workroom

Sewing & repair

Sewline’s three-colour pencil from the Eight Needles collection.

Writing-instrument knowledge meets sewing

Patternmaking & marking

Adger’s twin marker, showing the purple and pink tips.

A marker manufacturer in Saitama

Patternmaking & marking

The Chacopar extra-fine fabric marker.

The story behind a fabric-marking range

Patternmaking & marking

Hands and machinery in Concise’s official factory feature. Photograph: Concise / TTC.

From circular slide rules to dressmaking

Patternmaking & marking

The KFI K-4 MM tweezers from the Eight Needles gallery.

KFI / Kowa Pincet

The workshop behind two carefully aligned tips

Sewing & repair

The compact Gentey shears held in the hand.

A compact pair of shears for the sewing room

Scissors & cutting

Two Hara Doki tape beginnings, shown side by side.

A measuring-tool business rooted in bamboo

Patternmaking & marking

Renko Kondo with Emiko Narumi, pictured in Narumi’s teaching history. Photograph: JOCHICAJEL.

Renko Kondo / Tokyo Draping

The teacher, the curve and the clothes we make

Patternmaking & marking

A worker checking blade engagement in the shigumi stage. Photograph: Hasegawa Cutlery.

Hasegawa Cutlery

From polishing to the final blade adjustment

Scissors & cutting

Kiya’s buildings before the 1923 disaster, as identified in the company archive. Photograph: Kiya.

A Nihonbashi cutlery merchant’s Bunka connection

Scissors & cutting

From the Eight Needles journal. View the article archive ↗