niime 百科

Encyclopedia of niime

Tamaki

Well, after all, since I want to make the-only-creation, I want to go the way of that kind of sales and branding.

—— I see.

Tamaki

We change our expression every day, such as dressing up for shots, because I don’t want to repeat it twice. We created a rule to take pictures from different angles and situations, making us run, jump, or spin while wearing different items and adjusting the lighting and timing. Then we shoot once and never edit it.

—— I see.

Tamaki

How dark or bright days are, but we don’t edit pictures.

Sakai

We take pictures by adjusting with natural light whenever, noon or night.

Tamaki

We set up that rule on our own.

Sakai

That’s right. Because that’s more fun to do, it gives us a more vivid feeling.

—— You obey nature, using natural lighting.

Sakai

Well, everyone likes to adjust balance in many things, but we never have the same emotions each day.

—— I see.

Sakai

Absolutely not. 100 people out of 100, they never have the same days. But they want to clean up and try to adjust. I think that’s contradictory. If they can be who they are, there should be their true selves there. I don’t know why they try to be “different people”. I think the truth is in their nature, and they should be who they are. That is humanity.

—— Hmmm.

Sakai

Humanity’s advantage is that we can work with our true natures. Branding is an excellent example of that. Because, for sheep or chickens, they don’t make branding for themselves.

—— You are right.

Sakai

But they are entirely branded. Chickens are chickens, and sheep are sheep. Without saying anything, males and females are wholly branded. This is the ultimate branding. We know they are chickens without being told they are chickens.

—— They are indeed themselves.

Sakai

That’s right.

Tamaki

I don’t know about that. They may be insisting on being themselves a lot.

Sakai

But we don’t know what they are thinking, which may be their good point.

Tamaki

Yes, I know what they are thinking.

Sakai

We know some but couldn’t know all of them.

Tamaki

That’s why we have an interest in them.

Sakai

That’s the best point.

—— I see. That is the matter you have to chase them all the time.

Sakai

That’s right.

—— It looks like playing tag. As soon as you find them after chasing, they go somewhere.

Sakai

Yeah, but considering business, the brand with a sense of unity and a consistent image would promote a better business, like high fashion brands.

—— I see.

Sakai

That’s easier, and more people like them, and even they make more money. But that’s not what I want.

—— ……

Sakai

Of course, we have to make money, but I am not interested in that way of making money at all. Don’t you think it’s cool that ‘tamaki niime’ is making much money even though we are joking around?

—— That would be cool.

Sakai

Yeah, they make a lot of money even though they fool around.

Tamaki

We are not fooling around!

Sakai

Don’t misunderstand. We play around in good meaning.

Tamaki

Working hard!

Sakai

We play around while working hard.

—— You are diligently playing around.

Tamaki

We are diligently fooling around.

Sakai

We are playing hard and fooling around.

—— You have enough room in your heart even though working hard. There is always enough room for something mysterious, which attract people unconsciously. It may be similar to falling in love with someone.

Sakai

You are absolutely right.

—— It sounds like falling in love with ‘tamaki niime’.

Sakai

That’s right.

Tamaki

People would be attracted to that.

—— Something mysterious is attractive. You wouldn’t be interested if you understood everything about them.

Tamaki

In that sense, they are used as research materials in a university.

Sakai

That’s true.

—— Is there ‘tamaki niime’ reserch?

Tamaki

Yes, I appreciate that.

Sakai

I have my own philosophy that logic will follow after working with our inspirations.

—— I know. That’s one of Mr Sakai’s beliefs.

Sakai

For instance, when we work with just a thought without much consideration, we have different ideas come up here and there, right? We wouldn’t depend on our inspirations all the way.

—— We would help thinking without planning.

Sakai

That’s right. I think we work logically. Because thinking is logic. How much we work with inspirations, logical thoughts would chase us to cover after that.

—— Hmmm.

Sakai

We can be more active. Running a business would be more interesting if we work directly and instinctively with our inspirations and let our logical thoughts follow later. I believe we can be more vigorous. I think some people would have the same idea as me.

—— How do you find the ones you are searching for on the net? Do you see them while you are searching and catch the ones you are inspired by?

Sakai

Yes, or I researched the ones in advance if our business would have enough influence on them. Some companies have 10% of such possibilities. I depend on my inspiration for the rest of the factors. If branding is a considerable risk of bombing, do we set a bomb in each 47 prefectures site or develop a massive bomb in one location to make it explode to all 47 prefectures at once? I consider which places I should set them. I dare to use the expression of ‘bomb’.

—— You think of the practical and most influential device.

Sakai

So I don’t need to go outside, intentionally staying in Nishiwaki. (Talking to Tamaki) I have been staying at home, right?

—— As you mentioned before, you just made telephone calls from home.

Sakai

That’s right.

—— You worked at home while staying under the warm kotatsu (A heated wooden table covered by a futon.).

Sakai

Yeah, I sit in the kotatsu while working for 47 prefectures, where I went out at 10%, and 90% was at home making phone calls, SNS, or on Twitter.

—— Starting ten years ago… before the pandemic.

Sakai

I was staying at home to work on the telephone.

Tamaki

We started the company that way.

Sakai

Yes, we did ‘stay home’. As I told you before, if you want me to talk about branding, my policy is not to be ‘understood’.

Tamaki

That isn’t easy.

—— Mr Sakai is a hard person to figure out.

Sakai

Probably I am. I don’t think there is a person who understands me within our company.

Tamaki

That’s impossible.

Sakai

That’s true. They wonder who Sakai is. Even our staff’s families ask them who he is.

—— Because we can’t figure out what he has in his mind. (laugh)

Sakai

Right, right, right!

Tamaki

People wonder what kind of guy he is.

Sakai

You don’t have to say who he is. He is one of the necessary elements in the ‘tamaki niime’ brand, which helps Ms Tamaki work. She is a symbol in the company.

—— I see.

Sakai

She should stand out and be understood by others thoroughly. On the other hand, I stay mysterious, a counterpoint to Tamaki, who would become a mystery in everyone’s heads.

Sakai

I think so. It looks like ‘light and shadow’.

Tamaki

Certainly, people talked about us before customers came to the shop, imagining that we are ordinary pleasant dressmakers. Still, they were puzzled after they saw Sakai and me with a soft skull print top. They thought, ‘What?! They must be interesting.’ (laugh)

Sakai

Right, right, right!

Tamaki

Our visual impressions were different from what they expected. They were happy to see their expectations were contrary to who we actually are. “What is that?” They were so shocked to see our appearance.

Sakai

They expected us to be soft and gentle, regular people.

—— In my case, I was immunized earlier because I had such odd experiences before. (laugh)

Tamaki

If they have this image of a natural style, they would be shocked to see us. I didn’t want to dare to make it happen, even on our websites. I feel like we are being deceptive if we show only our soft and natural aspects. I don’t think it is good. I would instead show them our sharp elements, but it was hard to do with branding.

Sakai

Yeah, it was hard.

Tamaki

Especially in the beginning.

Sakai

It is hard to express both soft natural and harsher parts.

—— Since the event flyer of Hitotsu-kai in 2016, you have dramatically exposed yourself, which is different from a previous image of being friendly and clean. The brochure has a stunning picture of Ms Tamaki biting a piece of pizza and rough handwriting.

Tamaki

We began to develop what we want to do.

—— In branding, it is hard to expose yourself if people don’t understand the core part of ‘tamaki niime’.

Sakai

It is hard.

—— You have the problem of how to do it.

Sakai

They have to choose an angle. If Tamaki and I stand on opposite sites, they have to pick one of us. The middle isn’t any good.

—— I see.

Sakai

For example, if I ask Tamaki to shave her head, she would do it right away. If they don’t have such passion, they can’t work with us. I don’t want people who cry if I ask to shave their head.

Tamaki

Most people wouldn’t accept it.

Sakai

So most people just can’t.

Tamaki

Probably only one person could.

Sakai

That person wouldn’t leave us. He or she would do it right away.

Tamaki

If it shows their flexibility, it may be right.

Sakai

You may be right. They can have their hair grow back soon again.

—— (laugh) I would say, ‘Try jumping from ‘Kiyomizu no butai’; the high place once.’

Sakai

That’s right. That person can be outstanding.

Tamaki

Nowadays, people are so cautious about making choices. Most people wouldn’t give a chance to try jumping from the high place without wearing a belt and braces, like ‘better safe than sorry.’

Sakai

I think most people are like that.

Tamaki

Don’t you think people are generally like that? But we see many customers with shaved heads.

Sakai

Yes, there are many.

Tamaki

I think they are the ones who could respond to changes quickly.

—— What do you think about the proper timing of branding or running your business?

Sakai

It depends on how we feel. We allow our feelings rather than thinking logically. We trust our emotions more than logic.

—— Do you have any rules for negotiating with business partners?

Sakai

We don’t have them at all. We flexibly respond to them in person. We don’t know until we meet them. Even though they provide us with information before we meet, they are sometimes different from what we expected.

Tamaki

I have the opposite opinion.

Sakai

Yes, you do.

Tamaki

I get all the information beforehand and plan what to do in advance.

—— You plan everything up to the end.

Tamaki

When we go together to negotiate, I don’t do the negotiations. Because Sakai does what I want to do.

Tamaki

Mr Sakai feels what Ms Tamaki wants?

Tamaki

That’s right. I may be sending my message to him. I appreciate the feeling of what I want; even though we didn’t make any arrangements for what to do in advance, we always come home with good results. I guess because we have strong desires to get good results.

—— We can’t have the days that we just went negotiating.

Sakai

We need good results as long as we go negotiating.

Tamaki

It isn’t significant if we don’t get any good results.

Sakai

Time is so valuable.

—— You are right…

Sakai

For instance, our work is different from government projects which take years. Our work is always going on each moment and doesn’t have any long term blueprints. We need to respond faster.

—— You look for exciting things in each case, such as how to master creations which experiences are more important than thinking logically.

Sakai

That’s right.

—— I found out you can say the same thing for branding and running a business.

Sakai

Yeah.

—— Reading this article, you want to ask people to feel it rather than understand.

Sakai

Right, right, right.

—— If it’s not like that…

Sakai

It would be meaningless.

—— It wouldn’t make sense. That’s how I feel.

Sakai

It isn’t very meaningful to have prepared answers.

—— That’s true. There are no theories or rules. You don’t have any answers in advance.

Sakai

That’s right. Our staff’s work is to lead and find the answers.

—— If I exaggerate, Mr Sakai is saying “red”, but you have to know he means “white”. It would be best if you felt discerning.

Sakai

That’s right.

—— If you could feel it, you could do branding or run a business.

Sakai

Yeah.

—— Hearing your comments this time, I finally understand that is probably the critical point. The only thing you need to get is a discerning feeling.

Sakai

You are absolutely right. That’s the only thing.

—— I think we could conclude.

Sakai

Yes, that’s all we want to say.

Original Japanese text by Seiji Koshikawa.
English translation by Adam & Michiko Whipple.