niime 百科

Encyclopedia of niime

I interviewed Ryuta Fujimoto, who has built his career on weaving, which is the core of ‘tamaki niime’s’ creation, and he is also in charge of public relations.

He returned to Nishiwaki after working on the sales floor for a week to preview the opening of the brand new store, Tokyo Machida and spoke to us thoughtfully about the current movement of new ‘tamaki niime’s’ development.

I visited the tabe room for an interview. Beside Fujimoto were samples of new fabrics and clothing, displayed on the table. Many unique materials are made by skilful weavers and are sold at ‘tamaki niime’ TOKYO MACHIDA.

With their skills and ideas, fabrics look fresh because of the look and feel are different from other previous products.

Fujimoto

Ms Tamaki, Ishizuka, and I started the Fabric Store project initially, and I am in charge of it.

—— I see.

Fujimoto

I will tell you why we started the fabric store. I had an opportunity to ask Mr Hirofumi Nishikaku, a Banshu-ori artisan, if he wanted us to do something. He answered, “I want you to sell fabrics,” and Ms Tamaki considered his request.

—— That’s one of the reasons you started.

Fujimoto

Ms Tamaki has been thinking a lot if we could do something for the Banshu-ori areas outside our company, like Nishiwaki and Taka. She also considered fabrics. We haven’t had much communication with Banshu-ori artisans other than Mr Nishikaku.

—— Because you have a complete system to manufacture in your own factory. Weaving is part of it.

Fujimoto

But now we are connecting with local weavers, and share new ideas to sell fabrics. I am concerned that the scale of Banshu-ori is being reduced.

—— Yes, I am, too.

Fujimoto

Although it is undoubtedly assumed the numbers of weavers would decrease in the future, young weavers from Ookido Shokufu, who work with our Fabric Store, Yuji Hashimoto Shokufu from *Banshu-ori Next Japan, and the staff of Kondo Factory are working with our young team to make this product region more exciting.

*It consists of 6 young weavers who take over traditional Banshu-ori in Taka. Each of them has unique high-level weaving skills and works hard to develop fabrics and products. They are Banshu-ori next-generation weavers.

Fujimoto

This time, we asked the three companies to develop fabrics and have started the Fabric Store. In advance, we are selling them with our product materials at ‘tamaki niime TOKYO MACHIDA’.

—— You started in Tokyo.

Fujimoto

We brought all kinds of fabrics to Tokyo, and I worked on the preview for a week. We had customers from Machida, Tokyo and Kanto to see not only our products but also fabrics, and they could be sold.

—— The public bought them?

Fujimoto

Yes, they did. The fabrics indeed had some power. I hope we can explain it well.

I looked at the fabrics and clothing displayed by the table where I was talking with Fujimoto. He asked me to take them in my hands, spreading them to ensure quality and feel. There are men’s coats and jackets, and dresses…

Fujimoto

We are starting to work on various things. Our sewing team made the samples of the fabrics. They are sewing to make our original clothing with the fabrics from weaving companies. In the future, we want to sell them, not just to sell the materials.

—— Currently, you are still on the trial stage to make clothing with others fabrics, right?

Fujimoto

Yes, that’s right. The impression I had while I worked at the Tokyo Machida Store is that there are still limited people who can sew fabrics to make clothing. I found out that not many people want to buy fabric because they don’t know how to sew. Instead, they would rather buy them because fabric attracts them. The majority of customers I talked to when I worked for a week are like that.

—— They felt how attractive those fabrics were.

Fujimoto

They fall in love with those fabrics, but don’t know how to make them. So my job is to start explaining it. That’s why it’s exciting to sell fabrics ourselves. On the other hand, many customers don’t know how to handle them. So we need to suggest both.

—— You show them finished samples of the fabrics.

Fujimoto

The same clothing with ‘tamaki niime’ fabrics and the other weavers have different feels and textures, although they have the same shapes. One of our aims is to get people to understand those differences.

—— That sounds fun to be able to compare fabrics so easily.

Fujimoto

We put the weaver’s names, phone numbers, and addresses on the fabric product tags. Not only getting fabrics, but we also want to make it clear for customers to know whom they buy from.

—— I see.

Fujimoto

As we sell fabric, we want to give information about the weavers to customers because we want to tell people that those fabrics are not just attractive, but they are made by engaging individuals who live in Nishiwaki and Taka. We make Machida as a source for gathering information on Banshu-ori from Hyogo prefecture. If we could also bring fabric concepts together in Tokyo, all the data would start going around, and that would make it possible for weavers to get called directly from customers, skipping over our connections.

—— So that’s where you are hoping that they develop into direct access.

Fujimoto

Yes, we want to start working to make it happen from the beginning. Putting it another way, we have to work harder and send more information. We need to create new projects by rotating sales of fabrics and products with those fabrics. As we see how the works with three companies go, we will decide to increase to 3, 4, or 5 more weaver companies to work with.

—— It appears interesting that you work with the members of NEXT, or people with unique skills and personalities.

Fujimoto

They have skills we don’t and have different ways than weavers in the past. One of the characteristics is that they design fabrics themselves.

—— I see.

Fujimoto

I think that they feel repeating the same things as the current generation is risky, and I think we need to work together from now on. With this project, we want to connect with weavers, make new projects together, and increase interest in this region. That’s how I often think.

—— That’s what you wish for the whole region.

Fujimoto

As we can develop different textured fabrics in our company, our designers are excited about that. They have been exchanging their opinions on what they should make, like “this would be good for a skirt, or that would be for a top?”.

—— It really excites them.

Fujimoto

Yes, it is. At the same time, we also understand the quality of our products. That makes us think what’s our fabric’s attractiveness compared to the others.

—— I see.

Fujimoto

At the Machida store, we sell our fabrics and the weaver’s that was special ordered. We can do business well in this region by creating a steady flow of customers who find both materials interesting.

—— Hmm.

Fujimoto

If we cannot create a steady flow of customers, there’s no meaning to this business. We want to do this successfully. As one of our desires, we want to motivate the company.

—— As I listened to you speak, I came to understand the whole picture of your incredible work for the new fabric store project. I would also like to hear about the Machida store that you went to sell the fabrics.

Fujimoto

That Machida building was built 30 years ago. It’s an imposing structure, it is so special for the locals that they have been watching from the train windows; they see it when they pass by going to work or using it as a meeting place.

—— Oh, I see.

Fujimoto

After opening, I worked there for 3 or 4 days and found that many locals visited the store. I gave store tours to customers who wished to see inside once, and they asked me what kind of company we are. I answered we sell clothes and educate them about ‘tamaki niime’. The customers who already knew us in Kanto came to buy our products, but most were locals, who wished to see inside with their children.

—— How were customers’ responses who came to the store because of their curiosity about the building?

Fujimoto

During the few days I worked there, we limited customers to one hour inside. Many could not have enough time to try on clothes in that situation, but they said they would come back again. After that, I heard many customers were returning to the store. I think many people got to know the ‘tamaki niime’ brand and had a good impression.

—— I see.

Fujimoto

Many people were brand new customers who didn’t know ‘tamaki niime’, but we left a good impression with our attractive displays and colouring.

—— I watched the ‘tamaki niime TOKYO MACHIDA’ by Makoto Ishizuka on YouTube. It was impressive to see the displays on the soft curved shape in the white room where those colourful items are hanging on the …

Fujimoto

The deer antlers?

—— I thought it was so wonderful that Ms Tamaki expressed the feeling of unique light floating by it. As she said, it was like ‘the cave’; we could face one-item products in such space, making conversations about them. I could feel such messages from YouTube.

Fujimoto

Why do we use those deer antlers? Because they are a local product, which is my only explanation. The deer antlers are the local sub-products out of main deer meat in Taka, and we use them as our displays. One of the things we want to do in Machida is explain Nishiwaki and Taka in Hyogo or tell stories of the history of Banshu-ori.

—— As a resident, I appreciate that.

Fujimoto

I think we need to tell our local history. I feel that the space of displays or selling fabrics is not only ours, which I believe Ms Tamaki dares to do.

—— I see.

Fujimoto

Regular displays wouldn’t be any better because the building design is so unique. We feel overwhelmed just by seeing the building, and the basement.

—— I agree.

Fujimoto

How do we let our products blend into the building? To do that, it may be essential that we need to link them together in the story. Ms Tamaki also says she wants to display images of our local place in the atmosphere of the building. So she may think that we should use our regional materials in the construction to create an atmosphere.

—— It is not the way of hectic local product store sections. There are straightforward displays that products are hooked in the deer antlers, that we feel there is a history to suggest. I don’t know how to explain, but it was not aggressive, but the people who see the products in their hands begin to read into a story. And next to customers, the staff feel closer to them as their guides. So from YouTube and Mr Fujimoto’s explanation, I thought they had such a simple way of making people interested in seeing the products.

Fujimoto

The space inside is almost unchanged. The room we placed the fabrics in was originally a bedroom, with a bed installed, and we have just placed fabrics on the bed. Without destroying the image of space, how can we blend our products? That’s what Tamaki put a lot of thought into, essentially. She made many trips to Tokyo to make decisions. We changed the displays until right before the opening day. I believe it was done as close as she envisioned.

—— I am looking forward to visiting ‘tamaki niime TOKYO MACHIDA’.


Ryuta Fujimoto will continue the next time. He has experience and studied the manufacturing process of weaving in tamaki niime. We will get a closer look at ‘tamaki niime’s’ current state and search for their essence through a conversation with Mr Fujimoto, who has a bird’s eye view of the brand from his public relations standpoint.

Original Japanese text by Seiji Koshikawa.
English translation by Adam & Michiko Whipple.