niime 百科

Encyclopedia of niime

Surrounded by her soft and colourful art, she faces the tradition loom stoically.
With a smile as warming as the natural sun, she stands among the sun-dried shawls as the flutter in the pleasant breeze.
A humorous visage is biting vegetables on the ‘tabe room’ stamp card.
Every single picture on the website and postcards displays the authentic character of Tamaki Niime.
“I have to describe it accurately because I have been creating openly.
I would like people to know: ‘tamaki niime’.”
“I think it is pointless for the creator to go out to promotions by being pressured by the seller. People who create should do their best to create.”
“So, although I don’t have much contact with the customer, I would like them to properly know ‘tamaki niime’, so I think I should be open to discussing it.”
Now with this new Web Project, the ‘tamaki niime encyclopedia’, we discuss her thoughts and philosophies.
It has been 14 years since Tamaki Niime launched her brand. It was fate that she encountered Banshu-ori. She moved to Nishiwaki City, from where it originated. There, she developed unique and well-loved shawls that are gender, age, and nationality-free.
Now on the Ten Year Anniversary of the establishment of her company,
she moved her shop & lab to the ‘Navel of Japan’: the geographical centre point of Japan.
It has been two years since that occasion.
Her inquisitive creativeness started with the collaboration with a Banshu-ori craftsman and led to using the tradition loom to weave by herself. Now she covers all of the steps necessary for dyeing the yarn, to sewing and processing. You can tell how well her laboratory is equipped upon seeing the knitting machines and the new facility.
Through the window from her shop, visitors can see her lab, and experience the sight of her dedication to the creative process directly.
Shop & Lab are surrounded by a river and green mountains. A field of growing cotton,
a prime material in the fabric spreads, is part of the idyllic country scenery.
Tamaki sees with her own eyes, unbound by stereotypes with an innocent child-like curiosity, seeing by hand while sweeping to creation with unconstrained free thinking and an inquiring mind, allowing the experiment to repeat endlessly.
As a good partner of hers, Yoshinori Sakai, who has been leading ‘tamaki niime’
with a distinctive branding and networking skills while using thoughts and ideas freely
that are unrestrained by type.
With the two leads having created this ‘autonomous alter ego’, staff now come together to discover the innovative spirit of ‘tamaki niime’ for themselves.
“From now on, we would like to not only deliver creations but our core essence.”
In order to faster communication, this is the beginning of a variety of initiatives to create understanding of ‘tamaki niime’.
The ‘tamaki niime encyclopedia’ is a bold initiative which while keeping the core and thoughts of ‘tamaki niime’ brand from its beginnings in the ‘Navel of Japan’, also shows its passion to grow, reshape and evolve in new and exciting ways.

Please look forward to more from today.

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