I’m sure Mr. Sugano also depends on those mass-produced consumer goods as well, but when it comes to to his Aero Concept products, he has never come close to thinking of producing them on a mass scale in order to make some money.

Sugano: “Why, I wouldn’t want something like that myself. I started making this stuff because I wanted it for myself, so what would the point be to make something I wouldn’t want? These days, things like dishes, handbags, electronics, there isn‘t much difference between one product and another. I don’t think so anyway. That’s why the user has other ways of finding value in things. That could be the brand history, the recognition level, the quality, the carefully selected materials, the sophisticated level of customer service, or a long warranty. But, all those things are all ends to a means, aren’t they? You can take all that, mash it up and make the perfect system, but if there’s no birth parent, there’s no value to the product, is there? Personally, I’m not interested in something like that. That’s why I make what I want. If I can make something that I like, I’m satisfied. If someone likes something I’ve made and buys it from me, I’m even more satisfied. It’s very sad when an object has no birth parents.”

But, when pressed on exactly how Aero Concept was developed, Mr. Sugano is reluctant to talk.

Sugano: “On Saturdays and Sundays, when I had free time because there was no work, I used my extra time and extra materials and made it a little bit at a time, stopping along the way, then making a bit more, and so forth. Even though it was extra materials, it still cost money. I’m using the same materials that go into making airplane and shinkansen parts, so it really is expensive. I was using those expensive materials, so I couldn’t make a lot at one time. That’s why I enjoyed myself, getting this far this week, making up to that point next week. This month I don’t have money for materials, so I’ll leave it for now. It was like that.”

Research about design and technique were clearly done in this weekend handyman style, naturally attained. Read the brand policy that Mr. Sugano had a friend write for him when Aero Concept went public and it’s unclear, yet still somehow explained how the brand came to be.

Sugano: “This product policy was written up about seven years ago. When I think about it now, I think it’s a little off. Suzuki, you’re a professional writer. Could you take a look and give me some ideas?”

With this, Mr. Sugano showed me the following paragraph. As far as I could tell, being in a position to distance myself and look at it from an objective point of view, it certainly doesn’t present Aero Concept as a brand in a clear way. However, it does convey how the normally cool Mr. Sugano was passionately pursuing the “things I want for myself” when the project was founded.

Aero Concept is a product development and sales business targeting the end user with products made using industrial production expertise and planning and design skills honed over countless years in the business making airplane parts for companies such as Boeing and Airbus. The policies of the products we make are, high quality processing skills, accuracy, and manufacturing that spares no effort. After over two years of accumulated design and research about processing techniques, the product concept is “Airplanes – Outer Space – Atmosphere.” The products made will be mainly furniture, interiors, briefcases, lighting fixtures, sports products, and more. This is not merely design for design’s sake, but manufacturing sprung from an airplane shop. We’re making a new design style that has not been seen before. These products will be fitting of something coming from a place where the world of 1/1000mm processing and play/skill/prescision; processing with a playful heart come together to make a product. We’d like to meet the end-user through this kind of manufacturing.
Aero Concept.
This is the firm, but steeped in joy, policy of we craftsmen.

By reading this paragraph, it’s possible to learn a number of things about the brand. It’s a brand with high quality processing skills and accuracy. They are dedicated to manufacturing without sparing any effort. The brand design for Aero Concept took about two years. He wanted to bring together a sense of fun and everyday use as “manufacturing sprung from an airplane shop.” And so on. Even if Mr. Sugano doesn’t like his product policy, it does present several clear points. The behind-the-scenes story of the start of Aero Concept is certainly not the stuff of TV documentaries, full of clamour and disagreement, devastating setbacks and soaring glories. The reason for this is that basically Sugano himself was the only person involved in the development of the brand. Of course, Mr. Sugano had the help of the skilled craftsmen in the workshop, but the work was basically carried out in his own slow, meandering way. That’s why there are no meetings, let alone any project progress schedule management or budget. It was development of a brand by a weekend handyman.

Sugano: “Even so, you can’t really say it like that. I do have some ten-plus staff here. Some of them were against it. Their main job is to make these internal components for airplanes and shinkansen trains, and I started making this weird other stuff. Yes, well, even so, in my case, I just mumbled along to myself and worked on my projects. I figured I’d get it eventually.”

I’m very sorry for the readers who were hoping for some kind of climax and denoument to this tale, but the tale of the development of Aero Concept has absolutely no legendary qualities to it whatsoever. Well, it’s not that it’s not legendary. The legend is going on inside Mr. Sugano himself even now. “Not like that, this is better. No, I should do it this way. If I get this person to help, it’ll work out.” This meditation-like internal process and actual physical labor comes together and takes form, going out into the world. He digs down into the well inside him and arrives at the thing he wants for himself. It isn’t passed through anyone else’s filter. When he reaches the limits of his technical ability, he has the suppport of skilled craftsmen, but at the base of it all, Mr. Sugano decides everything according to his own tastes. Currently, the Aero Concept lineup is all born from Sugano’s personal aesthetic sensibility. Now, what kind of preferences does this Sugano have, and what kind of education, what kind of things was he surrounded in as he grew up? This naturally becomes the next point of interest.

one for all, all for all

Even before the company went bankrupt, Mr. Sugano had always made things for himself with his free time out of leftover materials. He was satisfied with his workmanship, and satisfied with the finished product. At any rate, he was the only end-user, so it wasn’t hard to make something that only existed to please himself. What for him was a playful pastime was the art of taking the image he had in his head and using his hands to use the materials and tools at hand to create a real object.

In all the little workshops in the world, there must be lots of old guys out there doing the same thing. Making useful things in spare moments. But the special thing about our Sugano is that the quality of his work is far from usual. This writer has seen the first document cases and briefcases that he made, and their beauty is difficult to put into words. When he says, “I just made something I wanted for myself.” He’s not just saying, “Look, I tried making this!” This is the work of a man who is so thoroughly devoted to detail, he creates with an enthusiasm that says, “I’m going to make this!”

Sugano: “We’ve always looking at the internal airplane parts and shinkansen parts, and feeling a beauty from them. They really are beautiful to us. And I thought, if I could make something from those precision-crafted sheet metal parts that I could carry around with me, I’d really like that.”

Inside Mr. Sugano’s head, a three-dimensional image of Aero Concept was there from the beginning. This could be close to what people like Ken Domon, Yonosuke Natori, and Ihei Kimura called “shutter izen.” This term is used commonly among photographers, and it refers to a style of photography where, instead of taking hundreds of shots and chosing the best one, the photographer already has an image in his own mind and all that is left is to go out and find the subject, adjust the exposure and shutter speed, and take the picture. Before the message is transformed from matter into image in the outside world, it has to be drawn clearly on the inside, in the mind of the photographer. Mr. Sugano, a lover of photography himself, has referred to shutter izen before. So surely he has, either consciously or subconsciously, used this method in his work making Aero Concept.

The one thing that stands out most from talking with Mr. Sugano, is how he never wavers from that initial image. Keiichi Sugano’s ideas and Keiichi Sugano the maker are totally connected, and this is what makes his work complete. Work that is completely unwavering. It’s not a simple thing for makers in any industry to do this. They have salesmen, marketing people, planning divisions, designers, promotion staff, PR people, a company CEO, and stockholders. That initial vision, that first image gets changed along the way due to the plans of the company. And then the production design, marketing research, and manufacturing is all altered and shared by the entire team. Amidst all that, it’s certainly not a simple task to create something with a clear vision.

“If everyone says what they want, you wind up with chinese stir-fry curry tomato sauce steak fried rice. The thing that everyone wants to eat is actually something that no one wants. That’s why at Keiswi, I’ve always thought about what I want, and worked at making that.”

Designers, marketers, and producers are all indispensible to carrying out a large project. Of course, their ability to communicate, express thoughts, and analyze mustn’t be underrated. It’s thanks to these people that the people in each role can work in an efficient way. And it is thanks to these people that creation and creative things make it onto the market in a way that makes money, and a lot of people’s livelihoods depend on this.

Keiswi’s Encounter with Failure

The Keiswi company used to be in Azabu, but after the economic bubble burst, it went out of business. That time was so painful. I figured I had thirty years left of my life but I just couldn’t be bothered anymore. That was when I decided that if I could use those thirty years to make something I personally liked, then I wouldn’t mind dying. That is how I wound up doing Aero Concept.”

Keiswi once went out of business. That’s a shock. It’s strange to think that this neighborhood workshop with such high levels of expertise has experienced bankruptcy. But Keiswi has in fact done just that. There was one big reason for it; Keiswi had been taking on a lot of work from a single large company.

At that time, we got eighty, ninety percent of our work from there. We didn’t plan it that way, it was just a matter of being told, “We’ve got a large workload. Come help us and don’t take on work from anywhere else.” We naturally wound up working mainly for that one company. In a sense we became an exclusive subcontractor. It’s more efficient than taking on work from a lot of different companies, if it lasts. Then one day, that company got into a joint management agreement with a Chinese company and just as the work was decreasing and our income along with it, it all ended. We went bankrupt, but that company, the products they mass-produced with their joint management venture wound up sending out defective products worldwide, and the cost of the recalls ruined their management. This is a company traded in the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Copal. Now it’s called Copal Electronics.”

“It was a good company. The founder used the technological power in the neighborhood workshops of Itabashi and grew it into a publicly traded company. The reason why good work came of good talks with the people in the planning department was because we were both from the same good tradesman’s stock. But after they went public, a guy from the bank replaced the founder as the company president, and before you knew it they started getting into all kinds of strange things. I can understand reducing activities in non-profitable sectors, but they laid off a huge swath of people in the planning department: the kind of people who should be at the heart of a manufacturing company. Plus they started getting into joint management in China and cost competition. Suddenly the work decreased and by the time we realized, “This is a disaster” it was too late…”

Mr. Sugano was forced into a terrible situation due to his company’s bankruptcy, experiencing a host of trials on a daily basis. The company that his father and his grandfather before him had carefully raised was blown away in a single moment. His father became mentally unstable, his employees and family members were thrown into a dire state of anxiety, and debt collectors were at the door nearly every day. Loan foreclosures meant the factory, the house, any and all large posessions worth money were all turned over to the banks and debt collectors. Keiichi Sugano himself fell into a mentally ill state due to the pressure. Eventually he began to feel that the only option left to him was suicide.

However the thing that kept him from suicide was a certain joy amidst the suffering. A good idea came to him through it all. It could be that once a man has seriously faced death, for some strange reason things manage to fall into place.

Aero Concept Becomes the Foundation

From the depths of his heart, he began to feel a longing to “make something I like.” The bankruptcy itself became the event to kick off the story of Aero Concept.

Although Keiswi once went out of business, there was a reason why it came back to life. Said simply, it’s because they have the skills as a small-scale factory to make things no one else knows how to make. Precision sheet metal processing techniques are sheet metal processing techniques taken to the precision level, so if it’s sheet metal processing, it’s certainly not difficult to understand what kind of shape you’ll wind up with. If you read this book, follow these instructions, you can understand most things. In other words, it’s a very transparent skill.

However, if you try to actually physically create something with a high degree of precision out of sheet metal, you’ll understand how difficult it truly is. Outsourcers don’t realize this, and wind up taking their manufacturing development from one cheap place to another.

They try to shave off the cost, without a thought to whether it’s cheap or poor quality. Outsourcers who succeed in reducing costs achieve high ratings within their company, and that skill can translate into a higher salary. However, what happens in the field is beyond the imaginings of that person. They don’t spare a thought for the condition of the spirit of the people in the field. In the end the power of imagination in relation to traditional manufacturing is reduced to a thin shadow.

As a result, the finished product is nothing but a mountain of defective goods. This is not a rare thing. When this happens, they next begin to desperately seek out workshops with the right technology.

When Keiswi went bankrupt, that group of craftsmen had everything taken from them: their homes, their factory, every asset possible was reposessed. However there were two things that even the law couldn’t touch. That was their skills and their knowledge.

An acquaintance of Mr. Sugano’s once said, “Your hands and your brain are the two things no one can take away.” It could be said that what Mr. Sugano was experiencing with Keiswi was this very thing. Even though the times dictated that the flow of cash had to temporarily stop, the technical skill and knowledge that Keiswi had couldn’t be taken away by anyone, and that was what saved the company.

After the company folded, representatives from a number of companies began to realize what Keiswi had to offer after going around to several other places.

When they came, Mr. Sugano said to them,
It’s over. We’ve got no factory. The company is bankrupt.”

But these companies that came to call said they wanted to revive the factory line and have them build things for them. One company even went so far as to offer to introduce a bank. All this to a ruined company.

Keiswi is here today because of the support of those companies. However, look deeper and it’s clear that at the core, what kept Keiswi alive by the skin of its teeth, was their inimitable, indomitable skills and knowledge that lay inside the craftsmen themselves.

We’d always been told, do it fast and do it cheap. But when it came down to the crunch and we realised that we had a special value, I have to admit I was pretty happy.”

Hello. I’ve just heard the t’rung for the first time, but it produces a very lovely sound, doesn’t it? Could you give a brief explanation of what kind of musical instrument it is?

Oguri: The t’rung is a musical instrument originally from one of the minority tribes in Vietnam’s Tay Nguyen region. Simply put, it’s a sort of xylophone made of bamboo instead of wood.

I find it very interesting to see a young Japanese woman heading a band where an unusual instrument from another country is being played at such an advanced level. How did you wind up getting involved with the t’rung?

Oguri：Most of the Vietnamese musical instruments that people hear about are ones from the culture of the Kinh people, who make up 90% of Vietnam’s population. But the t’rung is a musical instrument that comes from one of the minority people who live in the Tay Nguyen region. One day I learned about this and it just stuck with me. There are over fifty different minority peoples in Vietnam, and there are so many different musical instruments in each region of the country, so why did the t’rung become as well-known nationally as the dominant Kinh culture? In order to find the answer, I began to look into the history of research on the development of the t’rung.

You’ve got a wonderful thirst for knowledge. But I find it really unusual that your original academic curiosity has evolved into your becoming a passionate performer of that music yourself.

Oguri:Actually there’s a reason for that. When I was a child, I learned to play the marimbas. Marimbas are a kind of xylophone, so for me it was very natural to shift my interests to the t’rung, which is another type of xylophone. I first encountered the t’rung when I was in university, majoring in Vietnamese. In my professor’s research lab was a miniature souvenir t’rung, and I was drawn to it from the first time I saw it. When I saw my first real one in Vietnam, I was strongly impressed by the shape and sound, and it completely charmed me off my feet.

It sounds like fate had a hand in things. Now, you’ve taught yourself the t’rung based on your knowledge of marimba techniques, then?

Oguri: No. Actually I went to Vietnam to study for a year, and I learned from a teacher at the Hanoi Conservatory of Music (now named the Vietnam National Academy of Music) and from the original person who began research into the development of the t’rung, who lives in Ho Chi Minh City.

Hanoi Conservatory of Music’s Professor Mai Lai.

You had the guts to go and study in Vietnam just to learn the t’rung. I’m blown away. Vietnam doesn’t have the greatest sanitation, and in a sense it requires a certain degree of fortitude to get by, but you managed to get over that and devote your life to Vietnam. That’s quite unique.

Oguri:Thank you very much. I love the country of Vietnam. If I were to describe Vietnam in one word, it would be that it’s a very human country. I feel that people are very close to one another there. Compared to Japan, where people have a tendency to percieve others as “strangers,” in Vietnam if someone is next to you then you strike up a conversation, and people naturally help one another. I feel that people don’t worry much about “people I don’t know” and I think it’s very good and natural.

But, no matter how much you like it, to devote your passion to a certain musical instrument from that country is not something a lot of people do. Now, your current endeavor, the T’rung Trio, could you tell me how and why you started this group?

Oguri:he trio was formed for a concert at the Vietnam Festival in September of 2008. It’s important to do traditional Vietnamese music, but I also want to use the t’rung to express my own sense of rhythm and sound, my own sensibility. I wonder what kind of new worlds could open up to Vietnamese people watching me, a foreigner, playing the t’rung from my unique position, in a new style? If my new style of t’rung playing can be heard by the people of the world and give just a little strength to people, I’d be very happy.

I hope that your pursuit of that unique musical world can reach the ears of more and more people. Finally, if you have some sort of vision, please tell me about that.

Oguri:I think that the t’rung has a lot of possibilities as a “bamboo xylophone” once the view of it is widened. That’s why I want to use the trio to break new ground with it as a traditional instrument. Also, I respect my mother, who was a musician, very much. People always gathered around her and got energy from listening to her songs. She got sick and passed away, and so I think I’d like to try and continue what she started with her musical activities.

Kikuda:My personal belief about performing is to keep a theme of “living” whether it comes out as cool or not. I think the sounds that a musician produces affects that person’s way of life. So I want the sounds I produce, the melodies I weave, to be honest to myself. As a result, I think I can make sincere music. I think that the music I’m doing with T’rung Trio is close to my personal goals. I want to do things that will make more and more music fans go “Oh!”

Okayama:At any rate, we’ve got no choice but to play in a way that is sincere to ourselves. If you think something’s “good,” you’ve got to have confidence and take responsibility and actively pursue it. That attitude, and the ability to be flexible about opinions other than your own, if you can take those two things in a good balance and connect them to your music, you can naturally produce your own sound. That’s what I believe. I want to both do that and have the strength to keep it up.

Oguri: We’re putting on a big concert in October, so I hope we can make our own unique atmosphere and bring everyone into our new world of music.

Thank you very much! It gives me strength just watching you young people pursuing a new world. I’m looking forward to experiencing your new world of music.

Information!!

T’rung and Marimba Trio Concert

@ Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse #1 3F Hall
October 4, (Sun) 2009
Doors at 17:30
Show at 18:00
Performers: Kumiko Oguri (T’rung, Marimba), Shigenobu Kikuda (Double Bass), Akihisa Okayama (Percussion)
All seats \3000 (p code: 324-126)
Ticket Dealer: Electronic Ticket Pia: 0570-02-9999

Sponsor: Oguri Kumiko Trio
Co-Sponsor: Japan T’rung Association
Backing: Vietnam Air, the Vietnamese Embassy, Asahi Shimbun Yokohama Bureau, Marimba North Star Association, Neoria Korogi, Asia Wave

There’s a factory-direct soap company

Called Miyoshi Factory Soap.

The humble packaging

Is like design that hasn’t been designed,

It just feels good. On their website, it says

“The soap is the star” which is why the packaging is simple,

and it also says “buy a bottle on your own.”

They really seem to have a strong sense of their own style.

The manufacturer of this soap is Miyoshi Soap Co., Ltd.

The person who came up with this soap is the marketing director, Itsuro Miki.

He’s the third generation at the company.

“Soap is not something you sell, it’s something you tell.”

He speaks words that he’s inherited from those before him.

His voice gets particularly loud when he says the words

“Heart and soul.”

It may seem like a cliché these days,

But he is talking about real “heart and soul.”

You could call it “heart and soul, with heart and soul.”

That’s how strongly, and how positively,

Mr. Miki expressed that phrase, “heart and soul.”

You really can make a business succeed with heart and soul.

“At our company, we place great importance on

heart and soul, by which we mean the heart and soul of the craftsman.

Is that any way to make a business suceed?

Sometimes people ask us this.

As a matter of fact, it can succeed. (laughs)” (Marketing Director Miki)

Mr. Miki makes this assertion.

In these times, you don’t hear such a thing too often.

In other words, “Good wins out in the end!” is what he’s saying

That’s the kind of thing a lot of people need to hear.

Especially during this recession…

Why, it seems to be the accepted popular opinion that

“In order to succeed in business, you’ve got to be cruel!”

Well, you must admit, there is a certain

“Aesthetics of Evil” that people weave into their personalities,

a bad side that pops in and out of hiding…

But you bet if you’re surrounded by people like that,

It’s pretty boring, or maybe just a turn-off.

I don’t think I’m the only one who feels this way.

Miyoshi Soap has been selling soap for nearly a century. 90 years to be exact.

Currently, the company is on the same premises as Tamanohada Soap Co., Ltd.

They are affiliate companies, so

I imagine they help each other out.

A mutual agreement to help business along.

Grit and Style

A short trek from Ryokoku station,

The company exudes an air of “working class Tokyo.”

The old-ish yet sturdy building

Has a nearly antique feel to it.

All these elements reach the senses as images, scents, and sounds,

Creating a wonderful harmony.

But the amazing thing about this company,

Isn’t just its old classic element.
I once visited a Tohoku area soap factory, and it also had this delightful handmade air,

But in comparison, the difference is the size of the enterprise and the level of style.

Even so, that Tohoku soap factory

Has another, down-home kind of goodness to it.

But if you want to understand the stylish aspect of

Miyoshi Factory, I’m sure you’ll understand immediately if you

Take a look at the company’s website.

Miyoshi Factory

See?

The atmosphere inside the factory is bubbling with the energy of the working man,

But the website is stylish and cool, giving the viewer a certain sense of longing to bring just a little of that cool into his own life.

A brilliant combination of style and workmanship!

(Though I’m afraid that phrase itself is not so stylish.)

I have personally interviewed a huge variety of craftsmen,

But there are very few companies out there who are able to

Both “tell something” and “make something”

In a way that makes a lot of people happy.

Yes, speaking of style, the Miyoshi Factory Soap’s

Triangular tetra-pak design was in fact

Designed by a name well-known in the industrial design world,

None other than Fumie Shibata.

And Masaaki Hiromura worked on the graphics.

For those in the know, this is a truly gorgeous combination.

However, the person who had the idea to ask these two people,

Itsuro Miki, might just be the most gorgeously inspired of all.

There’s nothing special here?

A series of connections had brought me to this company.

I had to take this rare opportunity

And ask a few questions.

So I started in,

“Exactly what led you to arrive at the designers you chose like that?”

“You had been living in New York, and as a designer yourself! Well, that career must have had an influence on you somehow I imagine?”

“What’s it like being born into a soap maker’s family?”

“Were you influenced by your father at all?”

Shamelessly serving up volley after volley of questions, sadly, is an affliction that comes with my profession.

And the response,

“There’s really nothing special here.

I was just doing things the normal way.

I’m no different than anyone else.

There’s nothing special here.” (Marketing Director Miki)

Oh, now I’ve gone and put my foot in my mouth.

This is the workingman’s town, and the sheer character of the place

Is to take great care to maintaining an aura of style and cool.

Aaaah, I’m such a suburban loser.
I’m always putting my foot in my mouth.

But an oaf like myself managed to get

A lovely souvenir set of Miyoshi Factory Soap

From Marketing Director Miki.

I already had some, but I was happy to get it,

And when I used it again, it smelled good, and felt good on my skin.

Mmmm, those good hearted craftsmen,

Putting their heart and soul into this soap.

The price feels good, too.

It’s only about 400 yen for a pack.

If you’re interested, take a look at the website.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to see inside the factory,

So it’s the least I can do to show the photos I took.

It’s not images of the Factory Soap being made,

But you can get a sense of the atmosphere inside a soap factory.

Miyoshi Factory