2020 . 05 . 01
〈continued from the first half〉
- Tamaki
- I wonder which direction we will go after the Coronavirus pandemic. All events with crowds or gathering are banned, right? With these events being taken away, it would be good if we could be aware of the importance of such events and make efforts to maintain the entertainment value. However, in this current world, we should not gather, right? It creates distances, and I feel they make excuses that it is okay because we could still connect with the internet.
- Sakai
- I have a totally different opinion about it. Basically, entertainment is enjoyed not by individuals but in groups. Gatherings enable us to enjoy spectacles, but now they are banned, right?
—— Ummmm…..
- Sakai
- You know what? Even daydreaming outside by myself, there are many aspects of entertainment. I believe we will refine our own enjoyment from now on. I hope everyone becomes aware of its importance.
- Tamaki
- You mean we shouldn’t depend on others when it comes to “gatherings.”
- Sakai
- That’s right.
- Tamaki
- I understand that.
- Sakai
- After all, entertainment can be extremely “dependent”, which we shouldn’t rely on. We need to seek something more “individual” …
—— So more like solitary play?
- Sakai
- You are right. Being away from existing entertainment, your own play that we mentioned before, or the things you can create by yourself will help you feel more sensitive to what you really think.
—— Generally speaking, entertainment is passive.
- Sakai
- Right. You are absolutely right.
- Tamaki
- They make you brainwashed.
- Sakai
- That’s right! They brainwash you.
—— That’s not what we need. What we need is the means of producing your own entertainment.
- Sakai
- You are right.
—— Each one of us needs to.
- Tamaki
- We should have entertainment on our own terms.
- Sakai
- Yeah, because we have entertainment in our daily life.
—— I see.
- Sakai
- Before this we believed that we needed big entertainment, but the actual matter is on how much small enjoyments we could find in oneself. That’s all. In this coronavirus environment, it may give us an excellent chance to see us going back to our roots.
—— Going back to your roots of “play”?
- Sakai
- Basically, I like pondering and doing nothing to relax. I didn’t need to gather in the crowd because I could be excited and enjoy time by myself.
—— In that sense, I wonder what kind of fun children today would invent.
- Tamaki
- What would you create during the time that we are restricted from doing anything in a month?
—— Like what would you choose to play?
- Sakai
- Yeah.
- Tamaki
- Yeah, in the limited conditions to be in a house but children would absolutely…
- Sakai
- That would be absolutely great for them. They have an excellent opportunity to be away from the ordinary education.
- Tamaki
- They may lose the necessity of school existence.
- Sakai
- So, Tamaki took my nephew to Yamagata on her business trip in March, and he had many experiences there.
- Tamaki
- Yeah, we had fun.
—— You visited “Araebisu” that operates to protect Japanese woods and water resources.
- Sakai
- My nephew plays baseball, and he usually gets hooked on watching YouTube. But he went to profound nature spots like mountains to be away from people. He was so excited. His mood was totally different.
- Tamaki
- Yeah, his senses were stimulated.
—— What do you think about playing with given items?
- Sakai
- It is not attractive at all.
- Tamaki
- I was aware of one thing that I was told by the person I met. I agreed with what he said that it is the essential point if grownups are enjoying it or not. Actually, I was more excited than children.
- Sakai
- Really?
- Tamaki
- We shouted “Wow” or “Great!”. I thought it was crucial that adults should show our examples of excited feelings.
- Sakai
- Yeah.
- Tamaki
- After getting off the airplane at Yamagata airport, I paused to open my arms in front of the sign “Yamagata” saying “Here we are!”. And we did it together. I did first, and he followed me to do the same. But if I asked him to stand there to take pictures, he would just stand there.
- Sakai
- As I think about that, there is surely some small entertainment there. To put it bluntly, did you enjoy yourself or not.
- Tamaki
- It was the event I had during my trip, but the point is how you can create your own entertainment for today.
- Sakai
- That’s right.
—— You are free of the opinions of others. It is vital that you feel you are having fun.
- Tamaki
- It doesn’t matter how others feel.
- Sakai
- You are right. I feel we finally get time to focus on the importance of individuals.
- Tamaki
- It looks like people all over the world can be aware right now.
—— Then, we can see your values, the meaning of tamaki niime’s “One of a kind mass productionism” which is a one to one response, one item to an individual.
- Sakai
- We don’t know how the world will change from now on, but I feel our time has finally come.
- Tamaki
- Hmmm. It is not as easy as you say. If it is only a matter of me, it would be easier…, however, we have to run the organization of the company. It is not so easy.
- Sakai
- Take it easy. Think optimistically.
- Tamaki
- Surely I’ve been enjoying working, and believing whatever will be, will be. I am not pessimistic.
—— On the upstairs a little while ago, I watched your staff answering their customers as they ordered “tamasks” on the phone. I thought the way they handled the customers individually were really nice.
- Tamaki
- Yeah…
—— They were not just taking orders, but also they were caring how the customers were doing.
- Tamaki
- Yes, we accept orders by phone, and we’re thinking to have virtual video shopping.
—— That’s a good idea.
- Tamaki
- Since many people quarantined at home have been lonely, we could do something other than meeting customers at the shop.
- Sakai
- It may be true that the people are dependent on entertainment, and gatherings are suddenly left alone, which might make them very lonely.
- Tamaki
- They feel isolated.
- Sakai
- Yeah.
- Tamaki
- On that matter, we discussed that we would respond flexibly with what we could. For example, if we ask customers to shop on our web site, elderly people would complain to us that they don’t know how to use the internet.
—— For the customers who want to enjoy shopping at the real store, we could provide with YouTube videos that our staff have for ordering “tamasks”.
- Tamaki
- That’s right. We need to show people our mask sales at present. We need to let them know what we are doing.
—— That’s an excellent idea.
- Tamaki
- Because the customers can’t come to the store now, we need to send information to them.
—— While our talks continue, the central belief of tamaki niime is unintentionally exposed in these situations.
- Tamaki
- Absolutely, we became unified. So everyone gets excited! Risky conditions unite us. The Coronavirus made everyone feel uneasy. After all, we don’t know what is happening because we can’t see it with our eyes.
—— In other words, we could say it allows us to learn a lot.
- Tamaki
- Even though nobody asks, everybody has to think about it.
—— We can’t help thinking of the ways of how to survive.
- Tamaki
- Because we have real situations, we have to think about it. That’s why it is easier to experiment and try and error for now.
- Sakai
- Yeah.
- Tamaki
- We can try many other ways if one way doesn’t work out.
—— You can take chances.
- Tamaki
- Yeah, we can. Of course, the scenarios I have in my mind are not singular. Whatever situations happen, I try to get answers on each case instinctively. I had no idea to make masks at all a year ago.
- Sakai
- Not at all.
- Tamaki
- Six months ago, however, I told my staff that we would make “something” besides shawls. I declared we would do something creative that would last the next 100 years.
—— You sound like a real prophet.
- Tamaki
- Yes. (laugh) And I asked them to consider it together.
- Sakai
- Yeah.
- Tamaki
- They have kept that suggestion in mind, which must have inspired them to come up with the idea of making masks this time. (speaking to Sakai) Making masks was meant to happen. Ha!
—— Umm…
- Tamaki
- That’s very interesting. In that sense, I think this is what I wanted to do. It was worth preparing for that. We can unify to work full time together.
- Sakai
- Yeah.
- Tamaki
- We were swamped and had a hard time to catch up making “tamasks”, and we needed more people to work. And then Declaration of Emergency was announced, so all the department stores were closed, which was big for us because the staff who worked at the niime section of department stores came back to the factory here.
—— Oh, I see.
- Tamaki
- The shortage of workers was solved, and we could run forward making masks. It looks the timing helps us to make things work, pushing our backs forward.
- Sakai
- Yeah.
—— It depends on how you take things. Don’t you think you are rolling in the right direction?
- Tamaki
- I think so!
—— It is possible to go in positive directions even though in the same hard situations depending on how you take and accept the circumstances.
- Tamaki
- That’s why everyone has possibilities to go in the right directions. We didn’t estimate and plan for the Coronavirus, however what we have been doing is make a small choice for the things in front of us from time to time. It is interesting to see such little choices bring us real results.
- Sakai
- Yeah, it’s interesting.
Original Japanese text by Seiji Koshikawa.
English translation by Adam & Michiko Whipple.