The Drawer Pouch series has steadily expanded its lineup, starting with the Small, Large, Áne, Pocket, and now, the Drawer Box joins the family. ...That’s right, this time, it’s not a pouch.
Regardless, its ability to put in anything you like, to tidy your desk and room, and the fact that it can be used in place of a drawer doesn’t change. To put it in other words, it’s a drawer that you can use by placing it in your house or office.
The Drawer Box was planned from scratch by the team in charge of product planning for the Hobonichi Techo covers and the Drawer Pouch series. Different to other boxes that are mass produced in factories, the Drawer Box requires a lot of time and care to create.
In hope to show you that the Drawer Box is not only handy but is also made with care, we visited Okayama Shikijyo (paper container factory); partnering company of Nakabayashi, who handles the printing and bookbinding for the Hobonichi Techo. We’ll show you the Drawer Box right in the making.
Okayama Shikijyo is located in Toyoshima ward, Tokyo. They’ve created boxes in a multitude of shapes to put in books and dictionaries since 1951.
The process kicked off by deciding how each size of the Drawer Box (Small, Medium, Large) should be. Since it’s a completely new product, they started out by creating the patterns by hand and deciding the measurements of each small segment. The pattern was finalized after going back and forth to check that the lid and the box fit well, and to see how the lid opens.
The finalized pattern was sent to a pattern-making specialist and turned into a punching die, made by placing a blade on a wooden plank.There are three patterns: one for the core cardboard that will act as the base of the box, one for the fabrics and papers that will be pasted on the surface, and one for the paper that will decorate the interior of the box.
The logo “Hobonichi” will either be imprinted or be foil stamped in gold or silver on the paper and fabrics that cover the surface of the box. A specialist for 47 years, Kobayashi sets each cloth or paper in the foil-stamp machine by hand.
The punching die is set in a machine called “Victoria”, and the cardboard is punched out by hand, one by one.
This machine is used to cut out papers and cloth that cover the outer surface. It originally was a German printing machine named “Heidelberg”, but was remodelled as a punching die. Its nickname is Heidel, and has operated in this factory for over 30 years.
The paper that covers the interior is chosen to match the paper used on the exterior. Since simply pasting it with glue is a little weak on its own, double sided tape is added.
The cardboard that’s cut out is assembled, and its corners are secured with paper tape using a machine that’s exclusively used for this purpose. It’s an important stage to create a base in perfect shape to ensure that the paper can be crisply pasted on the surface.
Paper or cloths are glued on the surface of the assembled cardboard. The base, sides and margins are pasted on swiftly by the craftsmen. This process requires a great deal of attention so that the surface won’t wrinkle.
Screws are fastened to the hole to clasp the box and the lid together by hand. Small adjustments are made so that the lid isn’t too tight or too loose.
The boxes go under inspection to see if the screws are fastened so that the lid opens nicely, if the paper pasted on the interior has no bumps, and if there are no stains. After careful inspection, the boxes are packaged and shipped out.
These are the main processes that it takes to create a Drawer Box. Through visiting their factory, we strongly felt that each Drawer Box is made with care by the hands of many people. To finish off, we talked with CEO Inoue.
“Our factory has long experimented ways to create boxes of various sizes in order to respond to the requests of the publishers to accommodate their books. Thankfully, our collection of machines have grown, and we can now make paper boxes in a multitude of shapes. Because books don’t have a set size as like DVDs and videos, the boxes aren’t of a fixed size, making things a bit harder and things don’t operate as smoothly...(Laughs)”
“It was a challenge for us to create a box to be used as a box instead of a box for a book. There were many processes that it needed to go through, and we made things by hand for areas that normally can be done by machines. Even with creating the pattern, what we calculated to be correct didn’t go to plan. We struggled with how to improve from the initial sample that came up, but it was all a great experience.”
Thank you to everyone at the Okayama Shikijyo who created the Drawer Box with care. We hope these Drawer Boxes will be enjoyed by many people.
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2020-01-31-FRI
Here is some information on where to buy the new items that will be available for sale from February 1st.