What is Nousaku?

Takaoka City, located in the northwestern part of Toyama Prefecture, is the prefecture's second largest city with a population of approximately 170,000. It was first established in 1609, when the second generation of the Kaga Domain, Toshicho Maeda, built Takaoka Castle and opened it as a castle town. In 1611, two years after the opening of the town, Toshicho invited seven people from his hometown to set up a foundry in Kanayacho. At first, we made daily necessities such as pots and kettles, and farm tools such as firewood and firewood, but now we have made various products to meet the needs of the times, and Takaoka became known as a town of casting. .
  Even after more than 400 years, Takaoka boasts the top share of domestic casting production, and continues to produce a wide range of products, from small items such as Buddhist and tea utensils to large items such as statues and bells. In recent years, it has attracted a great deal of attention from the country by announcing a series of highly-designed crafts that fuse the technologies cultivated by the predecessors and modern sensibilities. Indeed, Takaoka is a manufacturing city where tradition and innovation coexist, and Nosaku has been nurtured in such an environment.
  Ayumi of Nousaku

  1916-2000
  Tradition is a series of innovations
  Nousaku began manufacturing castings in1916. In the early days, he mainly produced Buddhist utensils, tea utensils and vases.
  Focusing on the life of Japanese people who have increased their richness, we developed a vase with a modern design. It was a hit, and the business continued to expand. The turning point came around 1965. . However, demand for traditional vases, tea utensils, and Buddhist utensils has gradually declined due to changes in lifestyles and lower prices due to the economic downturn and increased overseas relocation of production bases. Nosaku is in trouble.


  2001-2017
  With user's eyes and unconventional ideas
  Developed tin products
  In 1984, Katsuharu Nousaku, the current president, joined the company. Katsuharu, who has been working as a craftsman for 18 years, will eventually want to use his refined technology to develop his own products.
  The road was pioneered by the exhibition “Rin, Hayashi, Rin” held in Harajuku, Tokyo in 2001. Brass bells that made use of the beauty of the foundation attracted attention, and as a bell that could not be sold in this form at select shops, as a wind chime with a strip from the advice of the sales person at the time, more than 1,000 per month Is a big hit selling. Since then, Katsuji has been born out of the story of a salesperson who says that there are many people who are looking for tableware. I am determined to develop a product that will respond.

  Normally, tin is processed by adding other metals to increase hardness. However, Nousaku will challenge the processing of 100% tin, saying, “I want to do something that no one has ever done”. The processing was a difficult task, and one idea came out at some point. “If you turn, make a tableware that can be bent.” It was this reversal concept that created a number of tin products representing Nousaku, including the bendable KAGO series.

 
  Communicate the spirit of manufacturing
  Promoting industrial tourism
  Technology and knowledge, tradition and spirit, handed down from craftsmen to craftsmen. Based on these, Nousaku is taking on the challenge of manufacturing across fields, such as lighting equipment, construction hardware, and medical equipment.
  Also, in addition to making potatoes, we are promoting industrial tourism to convey souls and souls.
  A factory tour, casting production experience, a café where you can enjoy a menu with local ingredients in tinware, and a tourist information corner that has been uniquely edited. In 2017, the new office building that will be the base is completed.
  The children who once participated in the Nousaku factory tour are now turning back to the young artisans of Nousaku. The number of craftsmen who were seven at the time when Katsuji joined the company is now dozens of people, and in order to pass on the cultivated traditions to the next generation, working on material / technological research and product development, we can be proud of the region, Japan, and the world We continue to focus on manufacturing.

Details