HOBONICHI TECHO 2016

Hobonichi Techo Cover Feature Article
The story of the little umbrella shop and the love behind its work.
An interview with Yoshihisa Iida, owner of Iida Umbrella Shop

Custom-made umbrella shop Iida Umbrella Shop carefully makes each umbrella individually for customers. The shop is so popular that the waiting time for these custom umbrellas is 6 months.
The Hobonichi Techo 2016 lineup features zipper-style covers that use the same material as Iida Umbrella Shop umbrellas. The A6 Original size is called Scramble, and the A5 Cousin size is called Hydrangeas.

The Iida Umbrella Shop studio is located in a little wooden house in a sleepy residential neighborhood. There, Iida and a small team work hard to create each individual umbrella, both by sewing machine and by hand.
We stopped by their studio to see how they work and chat about their covers in our techo lineup.

--: Hello, it’s nice to see you today.

iida: You, too. There’re a lot of hills on the way here from the station, huh?

--: Yeah, there was a lot of climbing up and down. What a peaceful neighborhood you’ve got here.

iida: This building is probably over 35 years old. Aside from the two times a year we put our gallery on display, it’s just my staff members and I plugging away, making umbrellas in this little 117 square foot room.

--: There’s something strange about seeing everyone sitting around in a tatami-floor room working on production. I don’t think there are many places like yours, making hand-made umbrellas like this. Have you always been interested in making umbrellas?

iida: Not at all (laughs). I wasn’t necessarily interested in making umbrellas, and I didn’t come from a household that sold them. I went to art school to study textiles and learned about art design. For my thesis, I designed my own textile, dyed it and wove it myself, and then used it in my final product. It turned out that the usual roads of clothing, hats, bags, and other fashion items just weren’t for me. And in the end, I found myself at umbrellas.

--: So after that you studied umbrella-making?

iida: I studied the structure of regular umbrellas and tried to find a craftsman who could show me how to make umbrellas, but there aren’t many shops left that make umbrellas by hand. Even the places I did find wouldn’t show me the art. That’s when I came across Tomoko Kamata, an umbrella craftswoman from Hamao Yogasa-ten, located in the commercial district in Mitaka, Tokyo.

--: Were you taught all the basics, then?

iida: At first I asked her to make an umbrella using the textile I’d dyed myself. I used that as a reference and made a few umbrellas myself, and took it upon myself to bring them back to show Kamata-san. She told me she had no interest in taking on apprentices, but I still treated her like a teacher and paid her regular visits, and kinda learned how to make umbrellas that way. The only umbrella Kamata-san ever made for me was that very first one, so my entire umbrella-making life revolved around that one, single example I referenced.

--: Did you start making umbrellas professionally soon after that?

iida: No, it was about two years after that when I finally considered making umbrellas for a living. At first it wasn’t much more than a hobby when I designed the fabric and turned it into an umbrella. Eventually, my friends started to ask me to make some for them, and that’s when I first received money and made an umbrella for someone else. After that, I made some more for my parents and other friends, and their friends and family started coming with more requests. Eventually, the requests increased until it turned into the custom-order system I’ve got today.

--: So early on, when you would finish the umbrella, you’d deliver it yourself?

iida: Yes. I was always really nervous when handing it over because I wasn’t sure if they were going to like it. I think the customers also felt that sense of anticipation and apprehension. But it felt great for both of us when they opened it up and the umbrella popped open perfectly. Perhaps that satisfaction is what led me to continue making custom-ordered umbrellas.

--: In addition to your designs that draw on plants, geometric designs, and stripes, you work with so many fun visuals, like the “croissant” pattern and the “nori bento” pattern.

iida: Just because my studies in design brought me to make umbrellas doesn’t mean I’m focused on using popular designs. The patterns just kind of emerge naturally when I’m having fun with a drawing. Perhaps that’s why customers tell me how interesting and unique the patterns are.

--: How did you come up with the designs that were used in this year’s Hobonichi Techo covers?

iida: The pattern Scramble, used in the A6 Original size, was released in 2008. I often think of designs on rainy days as I watch people in the busy streets carrying umbrellas. I picture individual images on each of the open umbrellas filling the streets, and Scramble is just that―a picture of all the umbrellas overlapping each other as they cross the Shibuya Scramble crosswalk on a rainy day.

--: 「It looks like field of umbrellas blooming like flowers. How about the Hydrangeas design on the A5 Cousin?

iida: We released that design in 2007, so it’s a very familiar design to Iida Umbrella Shop customers. I often sketch out plants in my notebook, but hydrangeas seemed to be the most suitable flower for rain and umbrellas. I sketched it out during the rainy season and ended up using that illustration for the umbrella material.

--: And those materials from the umbrellas were used in the Hobonichi Techo covers.

iida: As long as we had this wonderful opportunity to use umbrella materials to make techo covers, I wanted to make sure the patterns both strongly evoked the image of umbrellas and were designs that techo users would enjoy looking at day after day. So I worked together with the Hobonichi team and we decided on these two patterns.

--: What did you think when you first saw the Hobonichi Techo cover as a finished product?

iida: We never could have made our umbrella material into techo covers on our own, so it was incredibly fascinating to see our work reborn like that. We’ve also only had a small audience, so the reality of our work suddenly reaching all across the country is just starting to dawn on us.

--: It’s also really fun to have a Hobonichi Techo cover with such sleek material for the very first time.

iida: Yes, it is the very same umbrella material, after all. I hope people will go ahead and give it a try.

--: Thank you for meeting with us today!

iida: It was my pleasure.

Yoshihisa Iida
Born 1981 in Yokohama. Graduated Tama Art School with a degree in textiles. Founded Iida Umbrella Shop custom-made umbrella shop after graduation. Designs the materials for the umbrellas and tours Japan annually to offer custom-made umbrellas for use in the sun and rain. Wrote the book Iida Umbrella Shop’s Design, available for sale on Amazon Japan (Japanese only).

<Special things to note in Scramble and Hydrangeas!>

01
The zipper charms are shaped like cute little umbrellas.
02
The charms at the end of the bookmarks are shaped like raindrops.
03
Covers contain original tags for Iida Umbrella Shop.

Crowds of yellow and blue umbrellas fill the air like a field of blooming flowers
［A6 Original Zippers cover］
Scramble
Cover Only 4,860 yen

Popular Iida Umbrella Shop’s design features blue hydrangeas for a look fitting for a rainy-day umbrella
［A5 Cousin Zippers］
Hydrangeas
Cover Only 7,020 yen

2015-11-13-FRI

Recently Viewed