Nippon Scape

There must be a lot of women out there who are on a constant search for the perfect comb. However, the world today is flooded with cheap plastic combs. I don’t mean to criticise man-made materials, but surely there’s something better! Of course the modern gentleman also has an interest in finding a good comb. After all, it seems like it would be better for the scalp… yes, baldness prevention! I remembered a special woman in my life who has always had beautiful hair, and asked her where she got her comb. My grandmother doesn’t always remember things well, but she was very sure that her comb was a tsuge kushi comb. With these words in mind, I paid a visit to Kita Factory, a tsuge kushi maker located in Ibusuki, on the southernmost tip of the Satsuma Peninsula, in Kagoshima prefecture.

Good day. I’ve been looking for a good comb and I did some research and found out about your place. Could you tell me something about your tsuge kushi combs?

Tsuge kushi have become more of a traditional product these days, but in the past they were known in Japan as combs of the highest quality. There was even a song about the tsuge kushi combs of Satsuma that people used to sing in the Edo period.

Why are the tsuge kushi combs of Satsuma so famous?

There’s a species of boxwood (tsuge) called Satsuma tsuge that grows in the Ibusuki area. The best kind of boxwood is the Satsuma tsuge. As a material, it’s very dense, and the oil in the wood is retained well. It’s also very resillient. It combs through the hair very smoothly. That’s why the women of the Edo period loved them so much.

So the climate around Ibusuki helped to make it that way.

Among the boxwood that grows in Satsuma, the grain is very fine, and it’s very flexible. Around Ibusuki, the boxwood growing areas have a relatively low mean temperature. That’s why the growth is slower, and the growth rings are very narrow. This helps to produce a condensed, very dense wood. Quality-wise, imported wood can’t measure up in the least. You can tell at a glance, just by looking at the surface. It’s completely different.

They’re very expensive even now, so in the past they surely weren’t something the average person could get their hands on?

I’m sure that’s how it was. The fact that they’re a luxury product hasn’t changed even today. But really, women these days, they’ll easily spend 10,000 or even 20,000 yen in one visit to the hair salon. If you think of it that way, our combs last a lifetime. They’re really not all that expensive. (laughs)

Even so, Mr. Kita, you’ve got beautiful hair. I know that must sound strange, but…

Thank you very much. (laughs) But, I just comb it you know. I don’t do anything else.

I heard that your Kita Factory has invented a boxwood brush, and has even registered a patent. Is that right?

Yes, it’s true. One day, I started thinking about how young people use combs. Young women grip the comb in their fist. They don’t hold them like Japanese women used to. Also, our sales had started to slip, and I figured I had to try something new, and I came up with a brush made of boxwood. We brought it to market, and it sold pretty well.

So I suppose that makes the Kita Factory the birthplace of the boxwood brush.

Well, we do hold a patent, but apparently all you have to do is make a brush with a different number of bristles and there’s nothing we can do. There’s really no benefit to having a patent. (laughs) But I truly believe I was the first to come up with this idea. Thanks to the brush, our factory has made a comeback.

Were you facing a crisis at one point?

Yes, we were. I’ve experienced three boxwood comb booms since I started here, but after that, it got so bad that I couldn’t pay people’s salaries and had to let some staff go. After all, this place really is a small-town microenterprise. It was very amicable. I just said, “We’ve got no more work here, but I heard that company has something you can do.” It was very simple. (laughs)

Now, Mr. Kita, how did you wind up taking over this business?

I wasn’t the oldest son or anything, and I had no obligation to take over the business. But when I was young, I was just drifting around and my older brother called me home and made me help out with the business. At first I never intended to become a comb-maker. But while I was here, we had a boom period, and I started to enjoy the work. The next thing I knew, 42 years had passed. (laughs)

So you’re an old hand at this by now. Weren’t you ever drawn to any other trades?

Oh no, I never was. Despite my appearance, I’m pretty good with my hands, and I can do pretty much anything I set my mind to. But as things turned out, I was given this boxwood comb shop to take care of, and made it my business. I feel that’s my life, those are the cards that were dealt to me. I’m not that smart, and I didn’t go to a good school. I just did the best with what I got. I think it’s important to do that. I’m never going to win any Order of Cultural Merit with my work, and I’m never going to build any legacy either.

I see. You haven’t any legacy?

I consider the Satsuma tsuge boxwood to be my best legacy. “That comb maker, I heard he’s got lots of boxwood.” That has been the long-standing industry rumor about my place. (laughs) In other words, the wood is my legacy. If my son ever wants to take over the factory, I at least will be able to leave him a lot of boxwood.

If your son did decide to take over the business, what kind of advice would you give him?

I would never force him to take it over. But making something yourself and selling it yourself is the most honest, straightforward way of doing business, and I think it’s the best way. Just explaining things alone, it doesn’t cover it all. There’s no manual that sets it all up. You’ve got to move your own hands and explain what your body knows, and sell it. I think that’s the best way to do it.

Now finally, this is a difficult thing to ask, but do you think these combs would be alright for men to use as well? I mean, they say you’ve got to take good care of your scalp and all, right?

There’s nothing wrong with that. Other than this comb, I don’t do anything to my hair.