[Fujita Someen Interview Part 1] Creating joy from constraints

------First, please tell us what kind of technique Yuzen is.

"Yuzen is a traditional Japanese technique for dyeing fabric.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of yuzen: hand-painted yuzen, in which the artisan draws the patterns by hand, and stencil yuzen, which is dyed using stencils and colored paste.

Our company specializes in Kata Yuzen.

Compared to hand-drawn art, it is more suited to mass production, but since it uses many stencils and colored glue, it still requires a certain level of skill.

Depending on the item, more than 100 stencils may be used to dye it.

------Using over 100 stencils is an enormous task. May I ask you about the process of stencil dyeing?

"There will be a bit of technical terminology, but I'll give you a rough explanation.

First, from the white fabric stage, the process goes through the following stages: applying glue (outlining the design with glue to prevent bleeding), ground-dyeing (fixing the glue to the fabric), coloring (dyeing the fine details), ground dyeing (dyeing the larger parts), steaming (fixing the dye with steam), washing (removing excess dye and glue), and karieba (shaping the fabric into a kimono).

There will be many steps.

In essence, I would like you to think of me as being in charge of transforming a roll of white fabric into a kimono."

------It's no exaggeration to say that you are responsible for almost all of the process of coloring a kimono. I heard that Fujita Someen has a technique called indigo dyeing.

"Indigo dyeing is an ancient technique that has been discovered inside the pyramids of Egypt.

The basic technique is dip dyeing, which involves filling a bucket with indigo dye and then submerging the fabric in it.

Our company wondered if there was any way to apply this indigo dyeing to kata-yuzen.

Stencil dyeing with indigo is a rare technique.

Now I can dye my hair consistently, but for the first year, I couldn't even get the color to come out.

In the dyeing industry, there is a saying that "indigo is alive," and indigo is extremely difficult to handle.

Even now, I continue to research ways to express myself in even more ways."

------So it took a year of trial and error. Where did that enthusiasm come from?

"To be honest, I wasn't particularly interested in dyeing when I was younger. I was just hanging around in my twenties (laughs).

After joining our company, I watched my father work enthusiastically, and my interest in dyeing work grew. I wondered what was driving my father.

Right now, rather than being passionate about it, I just feel that making things is fun.

It's so much fun to make things and make customers happy.

It may seem pointless, but if your customers aren't happy with your product, it won't be a viable business.

I believe it is my responsibility to make our customers happy with our products."

------Making customers happy. As you say, this can be said for any business. The workshop we are talking about seems quite unusual, so do you have any particular preferences?

"It's just an old workshop (laughs). In the past, there were many workshops like this.

Wooden workshops that existed before the war are rare these days.

Our workshop has many limitations, but limitations are not necessarily a bad thing.

I think it's important to think about what you can do within the constraints.

The reason behind this increase is that there are limitations on the technology we possess."

------You seem to have a lot of products and technologies. Is there anyone in particular you would like to share them with?

"As I said earlier, we believe that our joy lies in making our customers happy.

As long as it makes you happy, I don't think gender, age, or nationality are important.

We are sensitive to our customers' needs and incorporate them into our products to create new joy.

If we can do this, I believe our products will reach a wide range of people."

The second half will be released tomorrow.