Nippon Scape

In The Beginning

“There’s a guy I know, he’s just overflowing with energy. He’s not normal, this guy.”

Kaoru Shimizu told me this, as I interviewed him at his workshop, EXIT METAL WORKS SUPPLY.
As president of a stylish metalwork design company, Mr. Shimizu is both a craftsman and a designer.
He’s just as comfortable welding and forging as he is designing objects that take iron to its limits.

Around that time, I’d been conducting interviews with people under the theme of “Lives of people who make things for a living.”
The sites are both shut down now, but the interviews were for PingMag MAKE, a bilingual web magazine, and PingMag RISA, which was an online publicity magazine for Risa Partners.

I had an extremely rigorous interview schedule, and covered more stories in a year and a half than I ever had before. I met about 120 people during that short time.

Add to that my ten year career as a writer and editor, and you could say I’ve met more than my share of interesting people.
So when I heard there was a guy in a neighborhood workshop that was “not normal” I figured it was surely within the bounds of my imagination.

“But,” I figured, “if a guy like Shimizu says he’s “interesting,” then he’s probably worth my time. I could interview him for a backup article. I wonder what he’s like?”

“His name is Mr. Sugano,” said Shimizu, “He’s got a company called Keiswi, and he designs a product line called Aero Concept. He’s a great old guy.”

Aero Concept?

I had never heard of that brand before. When I heard the name, I just thought, “Huh.” Aero + Concept just sounded like a pleasant collection of words that someone might cobble together to use for their brand name.

Shimizu went on, “He’s just a guy with a workshop that makes parts for airplanes and bullet trains, but Uma Thurman’s got something that he’s made, and Fender has asked him to make guitar cases for them, and the CEO of Porsche Japan is really into his stuff too. The things that come out of his mouth, they’re not at the level of stories you hear at your average neighborhood metalworks. He’s global. He’s living the manufacturer’s dream. He’s really cool.”

The manufacturing industry can be really tough, but Kaoru Shimizu has taken it on, cutting a path for himself, manufacturing and designing products that can’t be imitated by others. And here he was telling me about someone he admired. I was still half-doubting, but my interest in this Sugano character was beginning to grow.

After that, I went back to my office and took a look at his website. What I saw was a simple site with several tabs listing categories. The one that attracted me the most marked “Product.” I clicked it and went further into the site. Next, was a strange list of product categories: Air Craft, Shinkansen, Aero Concept, and Other. Clicking on Air Craft and Shinkansen brought me to pictures of what I expected from a small metalworks. But one peek into Aero Concept and Other and I was transported into another world. I saw products that gently appealed to the man in me: attaché cases, business card holders, and lamps. All useful products made to showcase their materials, and photographed as if they were pin-up girls.

This was where I first started to understand.

“Aaah, I see,” I thought. “They’re using the leftover airplane and shinkansen parts and making this stuff. But why?”

I started to get excited: “This company, and this guy, Keiichi Sugano. He could be just right for the theme I’ve been pursuing.” At that moment, I decided I’d go interview him.

Two months later, I interviewed Mr. Sugano and published the results as a web magazine article. As soon as it was up, comments started coming in from all over the world written by people praising his words:

“Wow, a truly amazing man. The metal + leather briefcases are beautiful. I want one.”
“This is what craftsmanship is. Gave me a new perspective to Japanese technology.”
“What an insightful interview. Thank you so much. Power to the craftspeople!”
“Keiichi Sugano truly shows in his beautifully crafted work,” and so on. It seemed as though people all over the world had been moved by what he said.

More than anyone, I had personally been moved by his words. It’s no simple thing to move someone with words alone. As a writer who makes a living from them, I’ve actually gotten quite sick of it all.

In particular, I have no time for self-righteous posturing. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who feel the same way.
But he was different. He would sometimes break into rants about society, but I don’t know if it’s because he was talking about the true nature of things, or if it was because he had a way of talking without trying to coerce me.

It was almost uncanny how what he said sunk in. And, while listening to him, I started to feel a strange something well up inside of me. It felt as if I had been transported back to a better age. I don’t know if it was the 60s or the 70s or way back to the late 1800s. I just don’t know. But one thing I can say is, what I heard gave me a pleasant jolt. I think that’s why the readers of the web magazine left so many messages for the editing team.

After the interview, I remember asking Mr. Sugano something. I said, “Mr. Sugano, wouldn’t you like to do lectures or something?”

He crinkled up his face and gave me a look like a mischievous kid, and said, “What, me? I’m just a craftsman.”
“Manufacturing, restoring of the art of making things, that’s what will save this country.” A long time has passed since that call went up in Japan. But now, for some reason, it seems that very restoration of our manufacturing industry is nowhere to be seen. In the past, Japan’s manufacturing industry turned out great men like Konosuke Matsushita, Soichiro Honda, Masaru Ibuka, and Kazuo Inamori. These men are all recognized worldwide for their achievements.

Nowadays, you can go to any bookstore in Japan and find something printed with their universally accepted wisdom. But what about the Japanese of today? There are no longer any manufacturing industry heroes that can compare to these great men. Of course, the biggest cause of this is the very age we live in. In an age where most people have whatever they need, there is no longer any room for a tiny startup household appliance maker or automobile manufacturer. Even if such a company were to be founded, it would never be able to hold its own against the brand giants that already exist. It’s just not realistic to expect some revolutionary manufacturer to come along and completely transform the lives of the nation’s people. That’s why I had already convinced myself from the start that even talking about such a thing was pure nonsense.

But, is that really the case? Even if they aren’t doing grand things, surely there are a few sharp people out there in manufacturing. Right now, with the position Japan is in, even if there aren’t a great number of people shining new light on the manufacturing world, there must be at least a few people who are able to add value to products because of their unique perspectives. There’s a Chinese proverb that goes, “Even if there is a horse that can run a thousand miles, there’s not necessarily a horse trader with the talent to find it.” There may be great men out there, but what you need is someone in a position to find them and bring them to the world. This idea is what inspired me to travel the country, meeting people and talking with them. As a result, I found that there really are a lot of people out there making unique things.

And among those people, President Sugano is right on the leading edge. I mean no offense, but Keiichi Sugano is really just a regular guy, running a regular little workshop. But at the same time, he’s being watched carefully from all over the world. Ultra-famous brand manufacturers, Hollywood celebrities, buyers from coveted boutiques, all of them are fans of his product line, Aero Concept. And that’s an indisputable fact. It sounds like a fairy tale. The things that are made in this tiny neighborhood factory are speaking out to the people of the world and touching their hearts.

But how?

I thought I might write a book with the answer to that question. I had already interviewed him once and knew the basics about him and his brand. But that was a mere bird’s eye view of the vast forest that is Keiichi Sugano. In order to get my hands on the treasure hidden in the dense primeval jungle of his mind, I was going to have to go in and look for it myself. The story of the man behind the factory that produces Aero Concept, the brand with the magical power to tear down borders, I wanted to be the one to write that story. But if I’m speaking truthfully, it’s not that either. I sincerely want to bring his words, and that certain something hanging in the air between his words, to as many people as possible. And I told him so.

Sugano was skeptical at first. “What, you want to make a book? I’m on the cutting edge? What are you talking about? I’m just an old-fashioned craftsman. Not just that, but I hate those success stories. They’re all done by ghost writers anyway, aren’t they? Books like that, I don’t read them. But you know, this era, it’s kind of strange. The world these days is getting weird. So maybe it might be the right time to tell a story like mine, just an old man from a little factory.

And with that, for some reason he decided to go along with my idea. This is an age where tent cities of freshly laid-off factory workers spring up in Tokyo overnight. Modern-day people with their senses dulled by decades of peace and easy living are just now beginning to taste true fear. Takiji Kobayashi’s book Kanikosen is experiencing a revival. The 80 year-old novel, with its tale of harsh working conditions on a Hokkaido crab cannery boat, has reached a sympathetic audience with disillusioned youth.

But it is because of this that we need to dream. Not any dream, but a real one, with its feet planted firmly on the ground. A dream from an old guy with a little factory that really exists, on the same level as we do. Still, this is just one man’s experience, and just one man’s thoughts. While his words are plain, they are steeped in philosophy. His words slip in your ear, nice and easy, and settle in your soul, where they take root. This is the kind of man who can be a hero for our generation. His words and actions show the beauty and power in hard work. He carries the message that by being aware of what is real and true and by giving your heart to your work, dreams can bloom.

This might be 21st century proletariat literature. It might be a business tome explaining a new style of marketing. It might be a loud pep talk to those who don’t believe they can do it on their own. Or, there could be people who get all those things from it and others who get nothing at all. That’s going to depend on the reader.

“There’s this guy, he’s just overflowing with energy. He’s not normal, this guy.”(Kaoru Shimizu, EXIT METAL WORKS)

There’s just one thing I can promise as the writer of this book. This man’s words and the brand this man has made both have a surprising energy running through them. The simple story of a craftsman who has lifted himself up from rock bottom and achieved his dreams is one that can inspire many to hope and to dream. With this in mind, I write his story.