300 Years of Delivering Tools that Embody Artisan Skills & Tradition – the Specialist Shop for Brushes & Brush Specialists: "Edoya"

Where there's good work and a comfortable lifestyle, there are good tools.

Brushes are invaluable not just for painting and crafting but also for cleaning, cooking, and makeup, proving essential in every scene of work and life.
 
Continuously crafting a diverse range of products in tune with the changing times is the specialized brush and brush store "Edoya," located in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. It boasts a history of more than 300 years since its founding.

Guided by their motto, "Delivering products that are user-friendly from the customer's perspective," they offer goods made with natural horsehair and pig hair, hand-planted by skilled artisans. We spoke with the 12th-generation owner, Katsutoshi Hamada, about Edoya's journey, their thoughts on brush-making, and what they've maintained despite changing times.

First, could you tell us about your business?

We specialize in selling a wide range of brushes for industrial use, household hair brushes, clothing brushes, makeup brushes, cooking brushes, and scrubs.
 
The "Edo brush," which we have crafted since our founding, is one of Tokyo's traditional crafts. It includes the Kyoji brush for Fusuma and folding screens, dyeing brushes used in the dyeing of chintz and stencil printing, and white powder brushes used in Kabuki makeup.
 
For bristle materials, we use natural hairs like pig, horse, and boar. For instance, makeup brushes require soft goat hair since they touch the face.
 
Urushi brushes used in making lacquerware employ human hair. As these brushes wear thin, the wooden handle side with the bristles is gradually shaved back. This allows the brushes to be used until the handle is about 3 cm, giving them more than a decade of use.