Father of the current representative Nakajō Yūsuke; took office as representative in Heisei 1 (1989). He led the workshop through its civil-rehabilitation crisis of 2001.
Taking over the family workshop
In Heisei 1 (1989) I took this workshop over from my forebears. The age of mass retailers was arriving and price competition was heating up — how a century-old family business could carry on was the most immediate question of my generation. What I inherited was a family business with roots in 1873 and a commitment to keeping manufacturing in-house.
The crisis of 2001
The 2001 civil-rehabilitation filing was a difficult part of our history. The family business faced pressures it could not manage alone and had to ask for help. That period made us reconsider why the workshop existed: to pursue maximum profit, or to continue the craft of Japanese futon making.
Setting out again from crisis
After emerging from civil rehabilitation, the first thing the workshop did was not to expand scale, but to recalibrate its craft standard to a level “we could recommend to family without a guilty conscience.” It sounds like a step back, but it was in fact the bedrock of the steady management of the next twenty years. Without that step back there would have been no online direct sales in 2013, and no smooth generational handover in 2017.
Handing it to the next generation
In 2017, I handed the business to Yūsuke, the fifth generation. When I visit the workshop and see the team carrying on the family business whose roots date to 1873, I feel reassured about its future.