Two Hara Doki tape beginnings, shown side by side. Hara Doki’s history begins with a licence to make bamboo measuring instruments in 1906. Its founder, 原吉太郎, built a measuring-tool business that later worked in textile tapes and metal rules as well. 1. Bamboo, textile and metal The company chronology records textile-tape manufacture beginning in 1925 […]
Renko Kondo with Emiko Narumi, pictured in Narumi’s teaching history. Photograph: JOCHICAJEL. A curve ruler is a flat object made for thinking about a body. In Renko Kondo’s work, that relationship between the flat pattern and the three-dimensional garment was central. To understand the ruler, it helps to begin with the teacher—and with the people […]
A worker checking blade engagement in the shigumi stage. Photograph: Hasegawa Cutlery. Two sharp blades are only the beginning of a pair of scissors. They also have to meet properly. At Hasegawa Cutlery in Seki, that final relationship is adjusted by hand—a small movement at the end of a much longer manufacturing story. 1. From […]
Kiya’s buildings before the 1923 disaster, as identified in the company archive. Photograph: Kiya. Kiya’s story begins with a new shop and an unusual condition: the apprentice opening it must sell something different from his former employer. That choice led towards cutlery. More than two centuries later, the connection reaches a pair of shears carrying […]
Discover the people and history behind the Nonaka Japanese screw punch, with workshop photographs, our Meet the Maker film and a practical guide to using the tool.