niime 百科

Encyclopedia of niime

The year 2025 will bring about significant changes.
Tamaki declared it first as soon as Istarted the interview.
‘tamaki niime’ had reached the milestone of the 20th anniversary of the brand’s birth in 2024. Its natural brand keeps changing and transforming now, it welcomes a big new wave. As they closed the memorial year, Tamaki started talking just like opening the dam.

Tamaki: Because it has been 20 years since we set up our brand company. If this is aperson, they are 20 years old, right?
— Just like we had the Coming-of-Age Ceremony. We look like we’re rushing into a new age.

Tamaki: It’s like starting a new experiment, right? If we were children, we would finally become adults. So it’s the real start to really starting now!
Sakai: We are finally working adults.
Tamaki: After learning many things, I finally understood what they meant.
— You mean you have been just students so far, right?

Tamaki: I have tried many things to run the business even though I didn’t know it that well, but I learned how to do it (this year) and made up my mind to do proper management.
— The year 2025 is the first year for you to start working as a new adult.

Tamaki: We have had many happenings over the last five years. We created ‘tamask’ in response to the coronavirus pandemic. But we were making shawls before that.
— That’s right.

Tamaki: Well, how can I say that? We have been exploring the creation and development of shawls for the past 15 years. However, since the pandemic, which occurred five years ago, we felt the risk of bankrupting the company, which led us to create ‘tamask’ and start online shopping. We worked hard for a year to achieve this goal. By doing such things, ‘tamaki niime’ has changed a lot and increased the number of workers and organised shipping teams.
— It was surely a dramatic change. Not just last year, but it’s been changing since 2020.

Tamaki: We have had our new state of mind for ‘tamaki niime’ and me for the last 5 years, compared to the previous 15 years. Well, every 5 years, we had a new stage, though. Having received advice from many people over the last five years, we tried various things, but ultimately, we felt it was not right.
— …? Not right??

Tamaki: On the bottom line, what we should do is do things not differently from the starting time when a few people worked (to Sakai), right?
Sakai: Yeah.
Tamaki: So, it is like ‘Go back to basics’.
— Focusing on shawl manufacturing, after that, you challenged various fields that were triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Tamaki: We extended various things because we were curious, such as reforming housing, dining, and more, but at the bottom line, we are the shawl-making company, just like saying, ‘Let the experts do their best.’
— That’s your origin.

Tamaki: The image of a ‘village’ takes on a life of its own and sticks in everyone’s mind. Banshu ori didn’t have a fixed image, so we could make shawls. As a result, it was good, but…
— If the image of ‘village’ preceded us, something would be wrong, right?

Tamaki: As a result, it became a ‘village’, but we don’t have to name it ‘village’ as the word. We made a ‘village’ with our concept and tried to make it the village, but I don’t think it is right.
— It is good if, naturally, it becomes a village, but it’s not good if our concept precedes firsthand, right?

Tamaki: It’s not our way that we try to infiltrate with words it’s not like ‘tamaki niime’. So we have to end it!
— It’s’ bolt from the blue’ for me. (laugh)

Tamaki: What we wanted to do is that we wanted people to experience this place and feel, “Wow! This is like a village!”. We were not trying to make shawls they were the result of our efforts after errors and trials. Since we now have 100 employees, I don’t think it’s accurate to say that workers won’t follow unless we give them top-down instructions.
— Hmmm…

Tamaki: We are not saying that there’s a goal for us, so let us aim to run for it. Instead, each one has its own creations or tells customers about them. The result of ‘village’ would be when we dig into each creation nicely with our senses in the same direction.
— I see.

Tamaki: We don’t mean to make a village here and make people gather. There are restrictions on words. With the limits of words, if there’s a chance, they may subordinate in such a way, but this is incompatible with ‘tamaki niime’s original way of doing things. I think Tamaki feels it in her skin.
Tamaki: I heard some YouTubers say that we have to tell with logic and words, but I want to say that ‘tamaki niime’ leads them by example.
— Going back to the artisan’s world.

Tamaki: Yeah, we will go back. One of the reasons why we show people our factory is to make them feel, not to explain with words. Rather than explaining the factory with words to understand the head, Tamaki wants to emphasise the people who visit the factory by using the five senses.
Tamaki: That was my awareness at the end of this year.
— Do you need to verbalise it?

Sakai: We would rather not verbalise it, right?
Sakai: No.
Tamaki: I think if we do it as checking answers, there’s no problem because we verbalise to reflect what we did in the past and discuss with everyone to dig into problems that is different from verbalising what we need to do in the future.
— …I see. I understand.

Tamaki: I’m going back to the factory.
— Finally.

Tamaki: Yeah!!
— Some people may have expected.

Tamaki: I think so. Nowadays, not as many people teach by example, so I have to go back to the factory once and teach them one by one.
— I am looking forward to it.

Tamaki: I think I will try not to go outside on business from next year instead, I will stay inside more. To sharpen my senses and focus on new challenges, I quit touching computers, including not doing accounting for five years. Instead, I have worked on spinning, taken care of getting animals, and built up tangible factors for digging deeper to make products.
— I see.

Tamaki: But intangible factors don’t work well. Just like the history of Banshu ori, our company has increased labour divisions, making it difficult to contact teams. As the number of workers increased, everyone began to work under leaders, which made it hard to work with horizontal relationships. I asked each leader to work with horizontal relationships however, there are difficult things…
— What kind of difficulties are there?

Tamaki: It’s difficult to work with horizontal relationships without understanding all processes. If they know everything, they can exchange their opinions, but it is difficult if they don’t know what other teams are doing. So I have to do it.
— I see. So, you want to lead by example.

Tamaki: So, I want to show them not only manufacturing but also accounting so that staff can interact with each other in horizontal relationships. It is just like the management style that my previous generations had. I had advice from Mr Jun Nakagawa, the owner of the shop Masashichi Nakagawa, who said that it would be alright to have the number of our workers.
— He came to ‘tamaki niime Shop & Lab’, right?

Tamaki: Yes, he knows everything about management. So he checked the numbers and manufacturing and suggested we need to make horizontal relationships in 20 years.
— You have been depending on workers in the factory.

Tamaki: Each team works all right, and it would be good if they dig into work or plough, but they seem to be missing the overall meaning of why they do it, so I need to dig into it together. Otherwise, I feel we could never dig into it.
— Hmmm…

Tamaki: Each team surely digs independently, but I want to dig more. I think we can do more. We can make products from original materials, such as threads, from animal hairs, or from cotton. We made it possible for all processes to be completed in the company, so there’s no reason that we don’t dig into it, right? But the products we made have demands, which are sold well, so the staff don’t take the time to dig.
— Ah, ah….

Tamaki: But if we don’t take more time, ‘tamaki niime’ can’t progress. Because we have to make the same products, we select the products with our original threads, which we made on our own, so that we can improve the quality of the products. That’s how we can level up the Only-One product creation of ‘tamaki niime’. That will be our final stage!!
― Ms Tamaki, in your thoughts now, although each team makes efforts to dig into work, is your company’s manufacturing complete process system not working effectively?

Tamaki: No, it’s not working. They have never done ‘creating a manufacturing system that produces one from scratch’, right? No one intends to produce new things, and they don’t have experience, either. They don’t know how to do it if I don’t do it with them, so I will do it together.
— You do it together.

Tamaki: We are ready to work to get the manufacturing process started. And I did somewhat educate staff workers. In the past, when we got power looms early in our business, I let them depend on me and just ordered them to work. But I think I would collapse by doing that, and the staff wouldn’t have fun. And that’s not the way I want to develop people. I want to make the group think on their minds and have fun doing it.
— I see.

Tamaki: When we moved the Shop &amp Lab here, I told them I wouldn’t do it. Instead, I want them to think up. Even though it took time to build up the system, everyone in the factory started to think about what they could do and create products using their hands, and each team started to run smoothly now, and they began to make products based on their own ideas. We are on to the next stage. With horizontal relationships, ‘tamaki niime’ gets renewed by the system of challenging new things with everyone.
— In order to do it, you show your examples.

Tamaki: I mean, I have to tell them, “Follow me”.
— It’s nice to have videos to show them ‘follow me’.

Tamaki: Exactly! (looking at Sakai)…He won’t follow me.
— Mr Sakai, you are not following her today. You look like you’re depending on her.

Sakai: No, no.
― It looks like you are unsure about it. Anyway, as a niime method idea, rather than pushing them to do it, just order them to follow her.

Tamaki: Since I haven’t worked in the factory for a while, it’s not good if I lose my skills, so I can ask the staff, “How do you do this? Won’t you teach me?” (laugh)
— It’s also a new challenge for Ms Tamaki, right?

Tamaki: My only strength is running the company while creating products.
— I have long thought that you are great because you are in both shoes. I felt that creating people or artists usually lacked a business mind.

Tamaki: If that is my strength, I should do it so that my company can improve. So, I think I would strictly go back to basics.
— I understood well. …then I want to talk about animals in 2024. The first animals that arrived here made families, and goats, alpacas, and sheep babies were born. Their second generation is growing well.

Tamaki: I am delighted. They are like my grandchildren to me.
— They are sweet.

Tamaki: We can barely produce one from nothing, right? Because we can do almost anything in this world. We can get shawls, shirts, or wares, but I think only having babies is one from zero.

— Yes… that’s right.

Tamaki: Yeah. Probably the most beautiful thing in the world is having babies. Watching our staff and animals, I thought so again.
— The birth of new lives.

Tamaki: Our staff can return to work after the maternity leave break because I want them to give birth and work after they have a child it’s not because of our business. When we think about why and how we live, the most beautiful thing is having children, and the most essential thing in Japan is giving birth and raising children. However, many people are not focused.
— Definitely, we would lose the power of society.

Tamaki: That’s right. It is too obviously true. I think if you get energised, have more children! It is a simple reason. If we don’t give a good environment to the people who want children, we can’t increase the number of children. At least, in our company, we try to make them return to work after maternity leave… When they told me they wanted to return, I was really happy.
— That’s really nice.

Tamaki: We need other staff’s understanding, and it’s impossible without everyone’s cooperation. But I told them that children are for everyone, and we need to support each other. I think that whatever animals or humans are, having new lives is a miracle and beautiful.
— As Mr Sakai said in the previous’ Encyclopedia of niime’, giving birth is amazingly creative.

Tamaki: It is ultimately amazing.
— It is the ultimate creation. We don’t need any meaning or reason.

Tamaki: No, not at all.
Society feels sad now that young women’s resources leave for the urban areas. Some local governments focus on making communities where young women can return to work. But it seems to me that it is a more advanced idea that they encourage female staff to have children and consider the care after giving birth.

Tamaki: The part-time mom workers are great. They see the situation well without having me say anything, and make the working hours effective.
— Balancing work and family life, they understand they can’t waste their precious time.

Tamaki: So it’s not right that we control it with a rule that they work from a certain time to a certain time. When they can’t come to work, I don’t think it’s right that they don’t have to come!
— Working moms have great potential.

Tamaki: They are tied up with their children now, but they may become full-time employees when they get older. While raising children, they can’t spend much time with them, but they grow up quickly. It is good for mothers to have their favourite jobs.
— That’s really true. Even though men and women are equal, only women can bear children. We want mothers to fully utilise their abilities while they raise children.

Tamaki: Our male staff take parental leave, which is very important because children are treasures. It’s not easy to give birth to and raise children. I want everyone to consider it hard once again. I think it’s better to have a social system where they can get more benefits as they have more children.
— That’s the policy to generate vitality.

Tamaki: And thinking about children, local cities should focus on education because parents move in for their children. Then we have good people to gather to work. (laugh) We should think that children are at the centre of the world.
— Children are in the centre.

Tamaki: Because children’s experiences from ages 0 to 3 have a big influence on their lifetime, we should show them many adult examples. In my company, I recommend that the staff bring their children as much as possible after giving birth. It’s even better if children have opportunities to interact with adults. Watching not only their parents but also 100 various strangers, children will have interests and expand possibilities, and give them more chances to choose their life easily, right?
— Yes, thinking back to my childhood, there were many adults in my neighbourhood. I think it’s good for children to grow up in an environment with many adults.

Tamaki: My goal is to show children and many adults. Watching adults, they act like adults do. In doing so, they grow up fast and can have many thoughts.
— Ms Tamaki, you spent your childhood in the clothing store where your parents run and had real experiences interacting with customers and many other adults.

Tamaki: Yeah. I have a question about school education. Teachers just teach students in one way, and students answer passively. We think up and dig into the points you are interested in.
— You study by yourself.

Tamaki: I think many people work to be praised or live based on how others see them. They are not willing to do it because they want to. That’s the important point. I want to increase the number of people who are eager to work. To do that, we must create environments to develop individuality since children are young.
— I see…

Tamaki: We have revealed ‘Koshirae kai’ (creation group), which gives them experiences of making various things. They use their hands to make things. At the first gathering, they made cedar balls. I have decided to do it together to motivate everyone to do many things.
— It’s essential to use your hands and body.

Tamaki: It’s important to tell new staff with words, but we also need to show them our examples.
— Yeah, it’s an excellent chat..… Finally, Mr Sakai’s ‘Sakai Quotation’ would be zero. (laugh)

Tamaki: It’s about time to rotate it. I have done it.
Sakai: Yeah.
Tamaki: No, you’d better say something. Hurry up!
Sakai: I have nothing to say specifically …
Tamaki: You don’t have any words to say?
Sakai: …I don’t mean there isn’t anything ……We at ‘tamaki niime’ welcomed the milestone year, the 20th anniversary of this year, so we have resettled and are in the most neutral state.
— That’s your state, Mr Sakai?

Sakai: Yes. This year marks the 20th anniversary of our brand’s establishment, which was a milestone for me. I have had many happenings this year. We are neutral about not only carefree freedom but also conscious freedom. I want to maintain this conscious, neutral state for 2025.
— Conscious neutral?

Sakai: Yes. I want to have rules for being flexible or free. I don’t like to use the word ‘rules’ though. I can’t explain it well, but I mean something I recognise…
— You mean you want to do it consciously to be neutral?

Sakai: Yeah. Even though I work unconsciously for ‘tamaki niime’, I can work functionally because my body remembers, but I want to refine my consciousness.
— So that you don’t fall into inertia.

Sakai: That’s right! For example, we always update our computers and phones. Just like that, I always update my consciousness.
— I see.

Sakai: I want to do that next year…no, I will do it.

He is gradually aware of himself and talking by himself. A New Year’s Day at warp speed, Encyclopedia of niime 2025, will start tomorrow!

Thank you for reading the ‘Encyclopedia of niime’ this year.

Everyone, have a great year!

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