A Dry Cleaners
Winter/2015
At the summer of 2014, a dry cleaners in Komae, Tokyo that I was very acquainted with, quietly closed its doors for the last time. Nowadays, it would be placed in a rare category of cleaners. It was a dry cleaners, but not the kind that distributed the clothes to an agency to do all the work, but a shop that dry-cleaned clothes in-house. For 20 years, ever since becoming a member of society, I would gather my suits, jackets, and knitwear with the change of season and ask this particular dry cleaners to kindly give my clothes a thorough clean. Even after I moved away from Komae, I would stuff what appears to be a large amount of clothes into my car and head to this cleaners’ as the season changed.
The owner was by no means said to be a congenial man, but in any case, his work was simply conscientious. Every time I opened the package that had been delivered from the cleaners each season, and upon handling each piece of clothing, I caught a glimpse of the warmhearted consideration given by the owner. It was a feeling of warmth I could not explain. I had to place a lot of trust in that job and that trust is something I have aspired to in my own work.
In our company it must be remembered we do not manufacture handmade crafts, but technological products. Yet I think every day that, through these products, the will and ambition behind the engineers handiwork or the heart of the people of Aizu is felt somewhere by people who use our products.
This assimilation of cutting-edge techniques along with the warmth that comes from handmade products is something we can somehow achieve.
