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Interview with Masao Tatsuta of Kyoden

Interview with the creators: From the creative process
Kyoden's Masao Tatsuta: "We aim to create products that people can be proud of."


At his newly moved workshop/office. With his trademark hat and glasses, and friendly smile, he has an aura that puts people at ease.

Our guest this time, Masao Tatsuta of Kyoden, is a creator of "brands" who takes a slightly different stance from the other creators we have featured so far.
In 2005, he founded "Kyoden" with the desire to spread Kyoto culture to the world, and debuted his original brand "Zen," which combines Kyoto Yuzen and jeans, and quickly attracted a lot of attention.
It has been 11 years since then. During those years, we have worked tirelessly to pursue new creativity and develop the brand while still cherishing our existing fans.
The results are finally starting to take shape.
We visited the workshop and office, which will serve as the base for future developments.

A pioneer of hand-painted Kyo-Yuzen jeans

What kind of work did you do before you became independent and started your own business?

I've loved working ever since I was doing part-time work in high school, and I wanted to enter the workforce as soon as possible, so I got a job straight after graduating.
After several job changes, I joined a small apparel manufacturer, where I was ultimately put in charge of everything from product planning to sales. I believe that my experiences there changed my life.

--It seemed like he was carrying the company on his shoulders.

I was there for eight years while people were leaving one after another. But I wasn't selling the products that I wanted to wear, and I was often scolded for not having the planning skills. The president was a dictator and what he said was full of contradictions (laughs). But I'm really grateful for all those experiences.
The world is full of contradictions, isn't it? If I hadn't had that experience, I don't think I could stand it now (laughs). I could have continued working, but my father got sick and I needed to be more flexible with my work style, so I took the plunge and quit my job and decided to go independent.

--What thoughts did you put into "Kyoto Den"?

I decided to make use of my experience to create my own brand, but unfortunately I didn't have any grand ambition of "this is what I want to make." However, I was born and raised in Kyoto, and I gained experience in apparel in Kyoto, so I wanted to create a brand that would convey the culture and technology of "Kyoto," which is the city closest to me. The company name is "Kyoden," and it was written in kanji at first.

Zen is a brand of hand-painted jeans with Kyoto Yuzen patterns. It is the original brand that Tatsuta first launched. With the spirit of Zen, deeply ingrained in Japanese culture, as its motto, the brand strives to create products that convey the maker's thoughts.

Hand-painted jeans come in a wide variety of designs, including some decorated with real gold and silver foil.

--How did you come to combine hand-painted Kyo-Yuzen with jeans?

It was just around the time when the Japanese pattern boom was starting, so I wanted to combine techniques unique to Kyoto with trendy items to create something new.
One thing I set for myself was that, out of courtesy to the company I used to work for, I would not touch any of my former suppliers or customers. So the first thing I came up with was a belt with a Japanese pattern.
At that time, telephone directories were still common, so I decided to start by calling as many as I could find. I picked out the phone numbers of several companies that made belts, and when I called the first one, it turned out to be a company that made leather patches for jeans.
As I was telling him what I wanted to do, he suggested I work with jeans and introduced me to someone who paints pictures on jeans using the Yuzen technique.

-- Things took an unexpected turn, but it turned out to be a good thing in the end.

No, at first I just painted pictures on ready-made jeans using Yuzen dyeing and brought them to retail stores, but they wouldn't take me seriously (laughs).
Wanting to make it into a proper brand, I went to Okayama, the birthplace of jeans, and started by making jeans. Based on my original idea, I had a pattern hand-drawn in Yuzen dyeing, and thus "Zen" was born.
I took the 40 pairs of jeans I had completed and went round to shops that sold Japanese-style items that I had found in specialist magazines to try to sell them to them.
Luckily, two stores, one in Amerikamura, Osaka, and the other in Ameyoko, Ueno, Tokyo, were happy to carry our product, but things started to get dicey from there...
Especially when I went to the regions, I often had to accept unfavorable conditions. I started to feel that this was a hassle, so I changed my sales target to the media.

Do you mean publicity?

Well, I didn't know anything at the time, so I saw an article ad in a magazine and thought, "I wish it would be featured like this" (laughs).
I have a pretty dirty way of doing things (laughs). I'd call from in front of the publishing company's office and say, "I'm just about there, so please come and meet me" (laughs).
It doesn't make sense, you know? He came all the way from Kyoto and he was right in front of me. I knew that I had to go that far to be treated properly.
Even when I was told that the person in charge was not there, I persisted and asked, "When will you be there?" and just met and talked. I was confident that if I could meet the person in charge, something would be done.
With that momentum, we went around to four or five companies, and two magazines featured us in their pages. This caused a bigger reaction than we had expected, and from there it just took off.
A year later, I launched "Daruma" as a brand of leather goods to go with "Zen", which was also well-received. However, this momentum only lasted for about five years.


Daruma is a Japanese accessory brand. It was born as a sister brand of Zen, and is focused on wallets and leather accessories. These are the Genbu wallet, made of leather embossed with a turtle shell pattern, and the Genbu wallet rope made of Kyoto prayer beads. The wallets, which were previously outsourced, are now produced in-house.

The handmade "Daruma" wristwatch, created in collaboration with watchmaker ARKRAFT's Hidekazu Araki, is also popular.

Overcoming a long period of uncertainty

--Both Zen and Bodhidharma have enduring popularity.

Of course, the demand is not going away, and we are increasing the number of items. We are very grateful to our customers who continue to be our fans.
But with the end of the Japanese pattern boom, we could no longer expect the same sales as we had at the beginning, so I was anxious to find a product that could bring back that momentum.
I started making whatever came to mind. Some of them I quickly withdrew from the market. Like the loincloth (laughs).
We were featured in various media outlets and thought we were on track, but we had no luck in sales and we were at a loss.

--You have an incredible ability to turn ideas into reality one after another. At what point do you decide that something is no good?

Having experienced the power of Zen, I feel that it's important to feel that same response.
If we can't produce something with the same momentum as Zen again, the company will dwindle. Moreover, during these five years, we were unable to secure makers for the leather products that were becoming our mainstay, and there was a time when we were out of stock of products.
At that time, we were asking craftsmen in Tokyo to do the work, but we felt it was important to do it somewhere we could keep an eye on.

--The most frustrating thing is when there's demand but you can't make it.

For a while, I tried to learn how to sew myself, and even took lessons. But I'm clumsy, so yes, this was another step I took (laughs).
There was a time when everything was going wrong, and seeing that, he probably couldn't see himself seeing his own future at the company.
Two employees who had been with me for a long time quit, one after the other. That was the hardest time for me. I felt like everything I had done had been denied, and I was depressed.

--Even in this situation, there is a new brand that is gradually gaining recognition.

The launch itself took place about three years ago, but "COTOCUL" was created by taking a different approach from previous ideas.
Since "Zen," we have been promoting Kyoto's traditions and techniques to the fullest, but this has come to seem like something that should be taken for granted.
We wanted to go a step further and offer something a class above the rest, something that users would be proud to own.
We started out by creating a simple iPhone case, but we gradually began to receive praise for the vivid colors of the ombre dyeing.


"COTOCUL" is a coined word that combines "koto" (ancient city) and "culture." The product in the photo is a long wallet that is hand-dyed using the "gradation dyeing" method, known as a kimono dyeing technique, and is made from a rare type of leather called "jinama."

Moving to the next stage with Kurozangawa

--And then you had another fateful encounter.

It was the fall of 2015. I wanted to learn more about leather, so I went to a lot of different places, and my eye was caught by "Kurozangawa" (black leather) that was on display at one of the exhibitions.
It's something that's used in armor and high-end kendo gear, and I thought it was interesting. One of the reasons I was interested in it is because I practice kendo.
Going back six years, I started kendo because of a loincloth (laughs). When I was trying to find a market to sell to, I heard that "people who do kendo wear loincloths," so I went to a kendo dojo to sell to them.
Well, I knew it was a lie (laughs). So I was asked if I wanted to try swinging a bamboo sword, and when I did, I found it strangely fun.
I continued doing this ever since, and that's what has led me to this moment... well, there's no such thing as a wasted experience in life (laughs). I immediately went to Himeji, where Hiro Sakamoto, a producer of Kurozan leather, was working, and we arranged to work together.


With Kurozan leather in the background, Kyoden's Tatsuta Masao (left) and Sakamoto Hiroshi (right) of Sakamoto Shoten enthusiastically shake hands.

Mr. Sakamoto, a producer of Kurozan leather, working at the factory. Kurozan leather is made by dyeing leather that has been tanned white in the traditional way in Himeji, and then giving it a textured surface.

The process of applying lacquer and drying it is repeated 8 to 9 times before the leather is finally complete, which is a very time-consuming process. Currently, the Sakamotos are the only two people in the world who can make this leather.

The finished product, Kurozan leather, is called "diamond leather" because the layers of lacquer on the surface sparkle depending on the angle from which it is viewed.

--When you launched the Kurozan leather series, you used crowdfunding.

Profit was not the issue, I just wanted to find out how much demand there was.
The growth far exceeded our expectations, reaching 200% of our target amount within five days of release. The response continued to be overwhelming, and we became convinced that this could work.
We did not have enough craftsmen to meet the overwhelming demand, but our only remaining employee, T-kun, showed unexpected talent and began finishing the sewing quickly and neatly.
A great benefit of this growth is that we can now rely on him as a craftsman.


The "COTOCUL" long wallet is made from Kurozan leather (the one on the left is an indigo-dyed long wallet, the one on the right is a black-dyed long wallet). Its luxurious and high-class feel will make your wish to "have something different from everyone else" come true.

Mr. T has now become an indispensable craftsman at Kyoden. "He was a fan of 'Zen,' so we welcomed him to join our staff. At first, he was terrible at sales (laughs), but this is what they mean when they say the right person in the right place. I want to make this a company that he is glad to have joined."

--And some more exciting news that will give you a boost.

Yes, at Première Vision, the world's leading international fashion materials trade fair held in Paris in September 2016, Sakamoto's Kurozan leather became the first Japanese company to win the Première Vision Award, Handle Award in the Leather Category.
It's the best in the world. In fact, we've received inquiries from some of the world's most famous companies, but it's difficult to respond because we can't mass-produce them.
On the other hand, if I had met him a year later, we might not have been able to create a product together.


Kurozan Leather is the first product in Japan to receive the Premier Vision Award in the Leather Section Handlebars. Mr. Sakamoto smiles as he holds the trophy in his hand.

--It has truly become a brand that you can be proud of around the world.

Our business performance has not yet fully recovered, and we need to make further efforts to raise awareness of "COTOCUL."
In particular, we want to carefully nurture the Kurozan leather series, which has won the world's highest award. However, we don't want to overreach ourselves and make it look bigger than necessary.
I myself have overcome many things to get to this point, and the state of mind I have reached is that of being "life-size."
When we first launched Zen, we believed that branding was about making people think that it was a great brand. We were entrusting the pride of the makers to the products.
But I think things are different now. I think it would be reassuring for our customers if we didn't try to look so good and instead said things like, "We made a lot of mistakes," "We're working with just three people now," and "We're starting again."

--So if you create an attractive product, it will speak for itself. What is your goal now?

Our goal of "creating a global brand originating from Kyoto" and creating products that are recognized around the world has not changed since the beginning.
Furthermore, I believe that the reason for a company's existence must be to make those close to me prosperous, so I want to work hard to make the staff, clients, and my family who supported me through difficult times feel glad that they had been involved with Kyoden.
The difficult period marked the turning point of our 10th year, and I think it was the right time for us to change. Thanks to that, we realized once again the importance of the speed of making and selling our own products, and we have renewed our determination to get our systems in order and move forward again.
In the end, it all comes down to planning something that people will accept and making it well.
In life, we may sink, but once we sink, we can only rise again. And only those who want to rise can rise. That's what I believe. Until we see results, it's a battle with ourselves.

--I think we can already see the light. I look forward to seeing your continued success. Thank you for today.

"Is it okay for me to talk about such things?" Tatsuta-san spoke frankly about Kyoden in a truly life-size manner.
It is easy to see that it is his personality that has allowed his work to be linked together in so many different ways.
We will continue to keep our eyes on their creativity, which combines their indomitable fighting spirit, ability to read the times, light-footedness, and respect for inherited skills.

(Interview date: November 16, 2016 / Text: Writer Toyo Morimoto)


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