Riding a Wave of Anxiety and Expectation: Ikazaki Shachu

Ikazaki is a beautiful place, located in Uchiko, a town in southern Ehime prefecture. The Odagawa river runs sparkling through the land, hugged by mountains. During the turn of the last century, a great number of handmade washi paper factories sprung up along the banks of the river. However, there are only two companies left today to support the local washi industry. Amongst this tragic state of affairs, one young man has stepped forward to open a new washi frontier on this very land. Through the JAPAN BRAND project, Hiroyuki Saito founded his company, Ikazaki Shachu. We paid him a visit and had a chat about his hopes and wishes.

Interviewed by Takafumi Suzuki. Translated by Claire Tanaka.

A: Yes. I moved here in August of 2008 and founded the company. When I first heard about the opportunity, I felt it was one of the three big chances each man gets in his life, and I decided to come. (laughs)

Q: What did you do before you came here, and what was it that resulted in your coming here?

A: I was born and raised in Ebina, Kanagawa. I’m not actually from Ikazaki originally. I studied math and science in university, and after I graduated, I worked as a systems engineer at a company called NTT Internet for a long time. I’m 37 years old now.

Q: So are you saying you came from a completely different field, and moved to a place you’d never even been to before?

A: It was a completely different field, but my wife grew up here in Ikazaki, so you could say that was the connection that brought me here. I first heard about the JAPAN BRAND project from my wife’s father, who runs the Kameoka Sake Brewery. When I was listening to him tell me about it, I started to get more and more interested, and I said, “Well, why don’t I do it!” (laughs) My wife’s father is kind of a funny guy. He’s not the kind of guy who says, “do this, do that.” Even so, for some reason, he has a funny way of getting people to do what he wants them to do.

Q: I see. But that’s amazing that you were able to just up and start a company like you did.

A: Every day, I’m riding a wave of anxiety and expectation. It’s very exciting. (laughs) But I have always been interested in entrepreneurship. When I was in my twenties, I went backpacking all over Asia to places like India and Vietnam, and I always thought I’d like to do work where I bring Japanese culture to the world. So in that way, you could say I’m bringing those dreams to life now.

The form that makes a pattern in the washi. Some are made of metal, others of wood. The tools used to make it are different, depending on the pattern.

Q: Not a lot of time has passed from summer of 2008 until now (February 2009), but could you tell me what you’ve been doing during that time?

A: I figured the first step would be that I personally got to know more about how to make washi paper. It was just then that French washi designer Gabor Ulveczki was invited to spend four months here. We timed the start of our program to coincide with his arrival, and every day I spent by his side, from 8:30 in the morning until 5:30 at night, learning about washi design. I didn’t just learn about design, I was also able to go with him to the Tenjin Washi Factory and learn how to make handmade paper.

Q: How about a little self-evaluation as an interim report?

A: For a first step, I figure we’re not doing too badly. A craftsman’s skills are not something that can be learned in a day, and in fact they take many long years to master. I don’t know if it was because I studied everything in condensed form, but I feel that I’ve managed to get an overall understanding.

Q: Could you tell me a bit more about Mr. Ulveczki?

A: He’s a professional washi designer, and his company is designated a Living Heritage Company (Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant) by the French National Commission (the Institut Supérieur des Métiers). He’s an amazing person. He’s currently got French citizenship, but he was born in Hungary. He’s managed to establish himself in a different country than his birth. He’s got this Hungarian mentality and a very active personality which surprised me a lot. For example, he decided on a washi design that he wanted to do, and he drew up a plan and brought it to the neighborhood metalworks. At first, the people at the metalworks weren’t sure what to do with him and looked at him with dubious eyes, but after a week, they had made what he’d asked for. I saw that amazing strength of will and felt that as a Japanese person I have a lot to learn from him.

Q: Did you use English to communicate with him? I don’t think it’s such a simple thing to collaborate with someone from another country. Could you tell me more about that?

A: We spoke to each other in simple English, but I didn’t feel any lack. As far as collaboration goes, I think we were able to work well together. He has quite a deep knowledge of Japan, and in fact, I learned a lot about Japan from him. I think two of the main reasons why things went so well are because firstly he is personally a big fan of Japan as a country, and also he really took a liking to the Ikazaki area here in Uchiko. I think that was very big.

Q: I see. I would love to be able to hear his reflections on his participation in this project.

A: First of all, he was able to complete 50 variations in the collection during the short time he was here, and he seemed quite satisfied with that. It seems he had three big realizations while he was here. First, Ikazaki has a lot of good materials and techniques, second, it’s very difficult to make something of the same quality over and over, and finally, sales is the most difficult thing of all, but it’s something that has to be faced. Additionally, he was very approving of the JAPAN BRAND project, and he said, “A program where the country supports traditional crafts, that would be unheard of in France. It’s really wonderful.” Also, he seemed really happy that he was able to spend some time living in the Japanese countryside, which had been a dream of his.

Q: Finally, tell me about the coming challenges and your vision for the future.

A: The most important thing for us right now is that we expand our distribution routes and find more shops to stock our products. On the manufacturing side, I think we’ll be alright if we can continue to collaborate with Mr. Ulveczki and keep a uniform level of high quality in our products. It would be great if we could get Ozu Washi accepted as a high-level value-added product on an international level. Knowledge comes through doing. As an admirer of Ryoma Sakamoto, I want to make my world debut not just through words but also through actions.

Ikazaki Shachu
Ikazakiko 1620-3, Uchiko-cho, Kita-gun, Ehime

A Word from a Regional Project Participant

Here at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, we’d done surveys, research, and creation of new works with handmade washi paper in the past. This was because we wanted to somehow try to save this declining local industry. I think this served as the basis for what resulted in our participation in the JAPAN BRAND project. During our first year, we decided that we’d make France our target market. Next, we had to decide what to make with the washi, how to express a Japanese sensibility, what to do about distribution, price, participation in conventions, then use what we found out on location as feedback. We used all that as the base for what we did in our second year. As a result, we didn’t participate in the Maison show, which can be expensive, and instead decided to find our own shops and make our own distribution network. Then, we sorted out who was going to be in charge of manufacturing, distribution, and publicity, and created an organised system so that we could get started. We wanted to have a project where we did both production and distribution from the start, and during our second year, we made some prototypes, including a cube, a tapestry, and a kite shade. We’ve been to France several times now for exhibitions and to look for shops. We’ve also been working on PR. As a result, we’ve held private showings and press conferences locally (at the Uchiko Jichi Center), participated in an exhibition in France (The “Ikebana Deco” in Paris), collaborated with manga illustrator Eico Hanamura, and we fielded inquiries from the media.
During the third year, we decided to focus on wallpaper made of washi. We invited wallpaper designer Gabor Ulveczki to come and succeeded in learning some techniques from him. Ikazaki Shachu was founded, and this received a lot of attention from the media, and I think this was a very fruitful year. From now on, we’re hoping that we can use this program to attract people to local industries and create jobs for people, creating a lasting shape for this project. Rather than making a big company factory, if we can make several small workshops, we believe that is the way to strengthen our community. That’s why we’re working at this project.