Vol.37

We want to weave towels that will be displayed in museums and leave their mark on history.

The process of weaving towels is called "seishoku. Mr. Ochi, a member of IKEUCHI ORGANIC's weaving department, talks about his passion for weaving.

Ochi, Weaving Manager

Seeking the feeling of making things with one’s own hands

My name is Ochi, and I am in charge of weaving at the Imabari headquarters factory. This year marks my fifth year. I am 25 years old and the youngest in the weaving department.

I have loved making things since I was a child, and after graduating from high school I started working at a pulp division of a paper company. However, because it was a large factory, my main job was to operate and manage the machines using a computer. I didn’t feel much like making things with my own hands, and that made me want to look for another job.

When I thought about returning to my hometown of Imabari and looking for a job in manufacturing, the first thing that came to mind was towels. I myself had been familiar with Imabari towels since I was a child, visiting the Imabari Towel Fair with my family, so I thought it might be interesting to become a towel maker.

While searching for a job at a towel company, I found out about IKEUCHI ORGANIC. I would have been fine with any company as long as I could work as a towel maker, but when I learned about IKEUCHI ORGANIC’s goal of “towels that are safe for babies to eat,” I thought it was an interesting company.

I decided to join IKEUCHI ORGANIC because I wanted to work hard at a company with interesting goals if I was going to work there. After the interview, I was given a tour of the factory and was surprised by the sound of the towel looms echoing through the factory, which was much louder than I had imagined.

My heart is always lifted as the towels get closer to completion.

For towel weavers, dealing with thread breakage is a very important factor. If a thread breaks while working on the loom, it can cause a defect in the weave and adversely affect the quality and appearance of the towels. Therefore, when thread breakage occurs, it must be handled promptly.

It would be best if we could weave without thread breakage, but this is not a simple task, as thread breakage can occur due to a variety of factors. For example, temperature and humidity in the factory affect yarn quality and loom operation. If the humidity is too high, the yarn tends to stretch and shrink; if it is too dry, it becomes brittle. Therefore, it is necessary to weave on the assumption that a certain amount of yarn breakage will occur.

When a yarn breakage occurs, the broken yarn is removed and a new yarn is placed in the proper position and spliced back in. When I first joined the company, it took a tremendous amount of time to splice the yarn. Today, I think I am able to handle it more smoothly than in the past, but when I see the movements of veteran craftsmen, I feel that I still have a long way to go. Skilled craftsmen do not waste any movement.

As the weaving progresses, the shape of the towel gradually emerges. Concentrating on the evenness and beauty of the weave, the tension of the yarn is fine-tuned. As the weaving nears completion, I am always elated.

I am particularly impressed by the Beatles tapestry. When I saw the faces of all the members of the Beatles beautifully woven into the large toweling fabric, I was shocked to see how beautifully it could be reproduced on a towel loom.

In this job, I can stand in front of the loom, operate the loom myself, and watch the towels being made up close and personal. When I look at the store, I have a sense that my own products are on the shelves.

When I see customers liking and purchasing IKEUCHI ORGANIC towels, I feel happy and proud at the same time.

My personal favorite part of the Imabari headquarters factory is that I can see the factory store from inside the factory. As a craftsman, I appreciate the environment where I can see our customers while inside the factory.

Dreaming of the day when our towels are displayed in a museum

My favorite thing to do on my days off is to visit museums. Ever since I visited a museum in Dazaifu on a school excursion in elementary school, visiting museums has become my hobby. Not only do I visit museums in my neighborhood, but when I have a long weekend, I also visit museums far away from my home.

My main purpose is to be comforted by the joy of craftsmanship when I see gems made in olden times that are different from the kind of craftsmanship I am usually involved in. It is a fresh surprise to see how different things can be in different countries, cultures, and ideas.

Recently, I have been particularly fond of objects made in old Central and South America. Latin America has a strong astronomical influence, and there are calendar stones that represent the Aztec view of space and time, and the more I learn about them, the more interesting they become. I would like to visit Mexico someday.

While visiting museums like this, I sometimes wonder if the towels I am involved with will one day be displayed in a museum as a symbolic gem of that era. I would be very happy if that were to happen, and I would like to create such a history.

At the very least, if IKEUCHI ORGANIC can achieve its goal of being the first in the world to create towels that are safe for babies to eat, I think that would be a gem worthy of being displayed in a museum. Thinking of this makes me even more eager to achieve this goal.

However, my skills and experience as a towel craftsman are not yet up to par, so I must first improve myself even more. I would like to contribute to making towels that will leave their mark on history while steadily increasing what I can do.

Interview March 2023
Interview and text by Keiji Ide
Photographer/ Yuji Kimura