A member of the Manufacturing department, in charge of the workshop’s “final-finish inspection and needle-check process” and packing. He is also responsible for educating younger colleagues — one of the most senior artisans still working at the workshop.
“The last gatekeeper”
I am now in charge of the workshop’s “final-finish inspection and needle-check process” and packing — meaning every shikibuton that leaves the workshop passes my checkpoint last. I am this workshop’s “last gatekeeper.” The effort of every preceding process needs me to confirm it strictly before it can go out.
“As if I had bought it myself”
My yardstick at inspection is: “if I had bought this product and brought it home, would I be satisfied?” Put that question, and many details easy to let pass no longer pass. This is how the line in the workshop’s values and code of conduct — “only goods we can take pride in before parents, relatives and friends” — lands concretely in my hands.
Teaching is learning again
I am also responsible for educating the workshop’s younger colleagues. “Through teaching, I learn anew myself” — in the act of teaching, I re-examine the things “done by feel” and put them clearly into words. That process has deepened my own understanding of the craft another layer.
The workshop’s eldest
I am probably one of the most senior artisans the workshop has now. But “being older” is no reason to yield — “I still won’t lose to the young ones,” that is what I ask of myself. “Every member of the OFUTON KOBO staff works at futon-making with sincerity and a whole heart” — that is a line I can say with my chest out.