From Backpacker to Textile Dye Factory CEO

Please tell us about the beginnings of your business.

Sakai City has been a town rooted in the dyeing industry for over 100 years. Our company used roll printing (nassen) to dye cotton diapers and nightwear made of wazarashi. Wazarashi is gentle enough to touch a baby's skin. As times changed, the demand for these products decreased, and in the 1990s, we transitioned to dyeing tenugui. Roll printing allows for mass production compared to hand dyeing.

Japan has a culture from the Edo period where companies give customers "New Year Towel" gifts, but in the 1990s, tenugui were often given out, and farmers would wear tenugui on their heads or necks during work. Around 2000, stylish tenugui started to be sold, offering colors and patterns that appealed to a broader audience.

What inspired and led you to take over the family business?

When my uncle, the second-generation owner, suddenly passed away, both his family and mine were hesitant to see the business end. At 26, I decided to become the third-generation successor. Learning the craft started there, without any manuals, just absorbing the work you see and feel. From when I became CEO in 2005, it took five years of studying dyeing. For 12 years after becoming CEO, we continued as a processing business, launching our own brand "hirali" in 2017.

In the past, textiles were washed in the river after bleaching. Along the river stood companies engaged in roll printing, with more than 50 in the 1970s, dwindling with closures and bankruptcies, leaving about ten today. As of now, we are the only company in Japan exclusively engaging in small roll printing for tenugui dyeing.