niime 百科

Encyclopedia of niime

Online outbound work is done by Hiroko Motooka, who currently belongs to the Wa team, and Kuninori Hashimoto and Shohei Kubo on the Toru team. These three people are essential in connecting ‘tamaki niime’ and customers online.

Since the pandemic, tamaki niime’s online content has been crucial in sales of colourful one-item products and delivery of the brand’s variety of charms. So I asked them to reflect on the timeline from the beginning to now.

—— Ms Motooka, you belong to the Wa team, right?

Motooka

Yes, I have.

  —— Mr Hashimoto and Mr Kubo are on the Toru team now. Both teams work together to make online content, right?

Kubo

That’s right.

  —— I have reviewed the interviews from the past two years and found you all used to belong to the Wa team. But after that interview, the Japanese Government announced a State of Emergency Declaration for COVID 19…

Motooka

Yeah.

  —— When you couldn’t sell your products at the store, you responded to the need for masks worldwide and ‘Tamask’ was born. Your Online Shop, which started at the beginning of the year, suddenly began working harder.

Kubo

Yeah, we got so confused at that time.

 

Motooka

(laugh)

 

Hashimoto

At the time, we were unified as a company, but each team looked like they were being disbanded. I used to be in the Sewing team.

  —— Oh, yeah, that’s right. The whole company worked to make masks.

Hashimoto

I went to many teams’ sections. I also cut pieces of cloth.

 

Motooka

Were you cutting cloth?

 

Kubo

Yeah, I cut cloth as I worked for the online shop.

 

Motooka

Well, we were helping the process and finishing-up work.

 

Kubo

That’s right. I remember we were doing that. We were hurrying to make masks anyway.

  —— With the Emergency Declaration, the company shuffled up our staff roles.

Kubo

Because we couldn’t catch up on the production after all.

  When they had the most challenging time running their business, selling at the shop and having events at department stores during the pandemic, tamaki niime started a new phase in the creation and production of Tamask, responding to mask needs and opening online shops which made it available to sell products through the internet.

In critical situations, they showed tamaki niime’s flexible and speedy unique creations and organizational power, which looks like a great chance to take their brand to a higher level.

—— For the last two years, you showed us excellent results with Online shops and developments of LINE-based outbound messages. Did you work on using online even before the pandemic?

Motooka

Yes, we started preparing around fall in 2019. We took 2 or 3 months to renew the website of ‘B to B’, which is for wholesalers and finished in November. Then, having it as a base, we set up the online shop site for regular customers, which took about 3 to 4 months.

  —— When you knew that you couldn’t expect any customers to come to the store because of the Emergency Declaration, you already started online shopping, right?

Motooka

We opened the online shop on February 2, 2020, when COVID hadn’t yet been discovered in Japan, but at the end of February, the situation became so urgent that we decided to sell masks. I remember we had already made Tamask in February.

 

Kubo

You are right.

 

Motooka

In March, we posted to sell the masks online, and they sold out instantly. We started to make reservations for them in April.

 

Hashimoto

Yeah, we already made a special reservation page in May.

 

Kubo

After making masks, we took pictures and uploaded online, and they sold out quickly. And we had situations like that for a while, so we decided to take reservations. Well, all the staff worked hard making them and taking pictures.

  —— Do you remember how you felt around that time?

Motooka

We experienced this while still learning how to work the online shop. It’s hard to compare to before, but I was surprised by how many orders we received from customers who didn’t know us at all but came to know us through masks.

  —— How did the new customers come to your online shop?

Kubo

I wonder if sending a press release worked?

 

Motooka

We also posted on SNS regularly.

 

Hashimoto

Yes, we did.

 

Motooka

Since many people have been following our Instagram, they knew when we would sell masks. There was a time everyone jumped on buying masks.

 

Kubo

We were even interviewed.

  —— I also saw it featured on TV.

Kubo

The newspaper interviews reached the people who really wanted masks.

  —— Triggered by Tamask, it looks like your shopping website’s online content is getting better. How were other products besides masks?

Motooka

We set up the website and planned to upload the products we liked. But as we were about to start it, we had to sell masks. So after that, when things settled down, we worked on uploading items that we still didn’t have yet.

 

Hashimoto

I think we were given an opportunity that we had customers who knew masks, and they started to like our shop and buy other products besides masks.

 

Motooka

We were desperate to make masks and sell them at that time. (laugh)

  —— You couldn’t think of sale strategies or things like that.

Motooka

In the beginning, we hoped that the online shop would help people get to know us and we could develop gradually.

  —— As a result, Tamask attracted people and made connections with new customers and let them know about other products, right? They became fans of tamaki niime.

Kubo

We made the masks, which brought a great deal. Because they touch a very sensitive part: the mouth, you feel how good the texture is. If we had dealt with other products, it wouldn’t have happened like this.

  —— It was an excellent opportunity to help people experience tamaki niime and our specialty of soft and comfortable touch textures, which people can only tell by touch how good they are. But, of course, they could experience that with all the other products.

About LINE delivery: they deliver tamaki niime’s rich contents daily and have been developing daily-increasing in quality-creation; introducing products, talks of Tamaki and Sakai, scenes from staff’s daily life, rice paddies and fields, upcoming events and even this Encyclopedia of niime.

—— When did you start delivering on LINE?

Kubo

It’s been more than a year since we started daily delivery.

  —— As a tool for promoting tamaki niime’s daily life, you told us that you dare not edit at all at the beginning of your plan.

Kubo

Yes, we did it at first, but we changed it because not all the staff were good at public speaking. Recently they have gotten better.

 

Hashimoto

They are getting used to being on video.

 

Kubo

Some of them even enjoy being on video. One of them is Keiji Taniguchi. He is called our ‘Johnny’s’ pop star of. (laugh)

  —— His personality is essential to us.

Kubo

We started with talks of the boss and Sakai at first. Gradually we added the pieces of equipment arranged by the company.

  —— You did it on YouTube first and then delivered on LINE.

Hashimoto

(talking to Kubo) Even though we belonged to the same team, you did YouTube all by yourself, right?

  —— What were you doing then, Mr Hashimoto?

Hashimoto

I was in charge of object shooting and artwork photographs.

 

Kubo

I did it alone for about half a year after starting the LINE delivery. When we decided to deliver daily, we realized we needed someone who can shoot videos and another who determines the content…so we got Mr Hashimoto, who knew how to shoot, Ms Togo, and Mr Inagaki, who was new at the time. So the four of us have been doing it as the video team.

  —— What made you decide to use LINE?

Kubo

The decision was made by the boss. Unlike other SNS, she likes it because LINE has the strength of communicating individually, which creates a closer connection to the message. We use LINE as a delivery media.

  —— I receive messages on my smartphone at 8 pm every night.

Kubo

It is sent at 8 pm regularly, and it became routine to send it daily.

  —— Getting messages simultaneously, I think people who receive messages make a habit and enjoy tamaki niime messages daily. Ms Motooka, at that time, you belonged to the Wa team and worked on developing the Online Shop, right?

Motooka

Yes, I did. It was just a year after opening our Online Shop, and I didn’t know how much we could sell online. So we guessed and tried to make content for a ‘special feature’. A year of struggling followed while I was not used to selling things; no one had ever experienced selling online.

  —— As I opened your online website, I was first drawn to the colourful product lineup. Even more, each item is a one-item product.

Hashimoto

‘News’ on the very first page was a struggle at first, which was only written with letters like “we uploaded new items!”.

 

Motooka

That’s all we did.

  —— When did you add the “selecting from colours” to the category?

Motooka

That used to be the one you choose from the machine types of power looms, shuttle looms, or rapier looms.

  —— Oh, I see.

Motooka

We made it choose from different colours after a year and a half, which is pretty recent.

  —— What do you think of your role of connecting with customers and staff as you belong to the Wa team? You could see the sales data of LINE earlier, right?

Motooka

Yes, I could, such as knowing what colours to sell more.

—— You could tell the creative staff.

Motooka

For opening the Online Shop, taking photos of each one-item product was done, centring on Mr Hashimoto a year before the start, and the team fulfilled their efforts.

  —— I see. That really worked.

Motooka

We knew how much sales were made at wholesale stores or department stores but didn’t figure out exactly what colours, what items, or how many different items each sold, but because of the Online Shop, everyone was able to know them now and using that system we can learn all the details of what kind of products are sold even at the physical stores. That was great.

  —— I see.


Even though it’s a little effort, we post the printed-out chart of good sales items so everyone can see, and we could request sold-out colours or discuss if we should make the popular colours from the same time of the previous year for this year. So it provides us with important long-term beneficial data. Using this data, we have been communicating with the creation staff.

—— You read the data and give them advice.

Motooka

There are types of colours to be sold naturally without effort, and potential colours to be able to sell in making our efforts needed to be understood and appreciate their beauty. Knowing such colours is hard in just reading the data, so we tell the creation staff about it.

  In the award event; ‘The new creation from producing land’, tamaki niime won the good design award in 2021 for all their efforts, evaluated highly for the totality of diverse activity on the land of Banshu-ori. Moreover, the video comfortably introduced the essence of the beauty of the tamaki niime brand in 5 minutes.

—— I think the introduction video of the award tells that tamaki niime is a diverse brand, not limited to Banshu-ori products.

Kubo

When Mr Fujimoto was asked to apply for the award, we didn’t know if we should do it or not, but I suggested going for it: “I will make a video.”

  —— So, you are the first one to raise your hand?

Kubo

Well, we were almost one step toward making a decision, so I said, “let’s go for it!” (laugh)

  —— You push their backs, right? (laugh)

Kubo

And the boss said, “try it!” The boss didn’t order us at all. Mr Fujimoto wrote down the story I thought of, and we made a video along the story.

  —— I see. You fully expressed your thoughts.

Kubo

I had been thinking of making a brand video before that.

  —— I see.

Kubo

So it was great timing to be able to apply. I didn’t mean to make the video to get ‘the good design award’, but the timing was the deadline for the award.

  Is that so?! How do you put the charms of tamaki niime into five minutes of video? Or express it? I think applying for ‘the good design award’ was a good chance and an outstanding performance.

Kubo

Yes, it was fortunate to get the award.

  You can see the video showing the award ceremony on the YouTube channel. It shows tamaki niime’s colourful work throughout the video with soft and beautiful pictures. The video starts by showing the staff’s rice planting scene for making ‘niime rice’ and weaving machines ticking rhythms comfortably. It’s also impressive that the video shows many hands beautifully working to create various products.

Kubo

I have been trying to make the one you could enjoy anytime in the long term. I didn’t want to make one for temporary enjoyment.

  —— I understand.

Kubo

I tried to make the one that may not be overly impressive the first time you watch, but people could still enjoy watching it again and again.

  —— You mean the one people can enjoy watching many times, right?

Kubo

That’s what I was trying.

  —— It must be suitable for your body, which stays in your heart.

Kubo

I didn’t mean to include the meaning of our messages. I just projected sceneries of a day.

  —— It makes me feel that it has a universal appeal that would not fade away even after 10 or 30 years.

Kubo

I could add it after we have more work and activities.

  —— You could add more shootings! In that sense, you did express the ‘fundamental tamaki niime’ in the video, right?


Not loudly telling the message, but I got the impression that the video was well done explaining the core of the brand’s mission, which is “Making things to align earth distortions”. —— Mr Hashimoto, did you get involved in making this video a lot?

Hashimoto

He used the videos I took in the past.

 

Kubo

Since there were some scenes I couldn’t take in real-time. It took a whole day to shoot. So, the title is ‘A Day of tamaki niime’.

  —— Everything is connected to the rice planting scenes in the opening. It shows an ordinary day of tamaki niime.


The three people in charge of the online works continue sharing rich episodes from 2 years of activities. For the following interview, work on the brand’s core and how they do it and talk about the prospects of tamaki niime. You can see their real faces having fun and enjoying creativity in daily work. Please look forward to it!

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