Japanese tatami mats like art? ! Challenge of young craftsmen in Gifu and Hashima April 8 at 16:37

The tatami that you often see is generally square shaped, but this tatami is now evolving. What is the thought behind the young craftsman who started making amazing tatami, "What is this tatami?" It is a record of the fifth generation of a long-established tatami store in Gifu Prefecture.
(Gifu Broadcasting Station Reporter Fumiko Sassa)

What suddenly appeared in the Japanese-style room! ?

When you step into an 8-tatami Japanese-style room, you see a dragon. They are made of tatami mats.

By combining approximately 200 tatami mats of different shapes and sizes with different stitches, the shade of color is created by the way of the light, and the dragon appears to emerge.

The tatami is made by Kenji Yamada (36) of Hashima City, Gifu Prefecture. It is the fifth generation of a long-established tatami store that has been in business for over 150 years, and has just taken over the family business three years ago.

An unexpected order

One of the orders from an acquaintance led me to start making tatami with an unusual design. "I want to put a tatami mat behind a wagon car." The request was to create a space where children could relax when they went to campsites with their families.

Tatami is a square, but what is required is a tatami that matches the shape of the car. I was very pleased when I tried to make it by fumbling while being puzzled by an unexpected order.

Mr. Yamada: "The idea came out that if we could do this more beautifully than we thought, we could make more tatami mats if we could do this."

From tradition to modern

What I began to make was a unique design of tatami mats combining curves and polygons. Until he inherited his family business, he worked as a company employee in house construction management. As we saw the demand for tatami mats decrease as the number of Japanese-style rooms decreased, we decided to adopt modern designs to see if more tatami mats would fit the Western-style rooms.

The tatami mats are wrapped in a rush mat tatami table and finished by hand. The price is more than twice the price of ordinary tatami mats, but new designs have come to the fore and orders from all over the country have come.

Expanding demand What is the appeal of tatami

Most of the orders received are for private homes. Mr. Yamada goes to various places and delivers tatami directly. I was accompanied by a room in a renovated Yokohama apartment. Mr. Yamada laid the tatami mats in one hour in a space of about 3 tatami mats in the living room of a Western-style room.

Miho Ohashi, who ordered the tatami, said, "I wanted to lay a little strange tatami on the floor of the flooring like a rug mat laid in a Western-style room. , I was very impressed because the way the light changes the way I see it. ''

Mr. Yamada, who never forgets a little playfulness, surprised Ohashi by showing off the tatami parts made in the shape of Michael Jackson.

Kota Yamada's tatami mats are also used at a ryokan that opened in February at Kinosaki Onsen in Hyogo Prefecture. The ryokan, which has more than 400 curved and polygonal tatami mats, creates a contemporary atmosphere while cherishing the appearance of an old building about 90 years old.

Mr. Nakae: “I was honestly surprised at the variety of expressions that can be made under the shade of the tatami mats. "

Endless free ideas

Ms. Yamada, thinking that she could use tatami besides laying on the floor, worked with a lumber store in Gifu City to produce a chair. You can also change the height by changing the legs.

In addition, what we are developing now is named "Mugen Design Tatami". By combining hexagonal small tatami mats, we are trying to express the faces of anyone who knows, such as Marilyn Monroe and Ryoma Sakamoto, with tatami mats.

In addition to this, we have taken on new challenges one after another with new ideas, such as developing tatami mats that store light during the day and glow in the dark at night. On the other hand, in order to convey the wonderfulness of tatami to people all over the world in anticipation of future overseas expansion, we have also created our own English website and introduced various designs of tatami.

Mr. Yamada: "Some things will not be used with the times, but I think that tatami has much more useful value and its potential has not yet been fully exploited. I want to make a tatami that surprises me! "

Mr. Yamada continues to challenge the development of new tatami mats with free ideas that are not bound by tradition or frame. From that figure, there was an overflowing desire for tatami to be a familiar presence at all times.

Fumiko Sassa, Gifu Broadcasting Station Reporter Joined in 1998 Akita bureau, Sao Paulo bureau, etc. The current character is shown together with the official character of Gifu Prefecture "Minamo"