A member of the futon-making team. She is mainly responsible for the roll-shaping of the inner cotton (inner cotton) in our three-layer shikibuton, as well as pillow making.
The inner-cotton roll is my work
Our three-layer shikibuton is built like this — between the upper and lower layers offirm cotton sits a layer of inner-cotton roll. Shaping that inner cotton is the process I am chiefly responsible for, along with pillow making. It may sound mechanical, but the evenness of every roll decides the very first sensation a customer feels the moment they lie down.
“For the customer, it is the only one”
For us makers it is one of dozens or hundreds we handle in a day; for the customer who receives it, it is their one and only. That contrast is what I remind myself of before each shift — I must not relax just because “this is the 87th.” Every single one has to be made to the standard of the “first one.”
A futon made for my son
My second son is on his high-school baseball team — hard training, little rest. I want the shikibuton our workshop makes to help him recover more fully in what little sleep he gets. That feeling of “making something for a specific person” is a concrete thought I carry to every shift: when there is a real person in mind, the hands do not grow careless.
The breadth of generations in the workshop
Our colleagues bring different levels of experience and complementary strengths. Covering for and learning from one another is, in its own way, another craft of the workshop. I hope to keep learning here and to pass my skills on to the next generation.