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.