Things That Are Decreasing and Things That Are Increasing: A Conversation with Shohei Koyama of Jiyucho (Part 1)

The magazine "Monozukuri Perspective" is a series where SEVEN THREE Creative Director Nanami Ozaki engages in conversations with various people involved in craftsmanship.

It feels like there are many more people called "creators" now than before, thanks to the birth of numerous tools for making and selling things. This trend will surely continue to accelerate. In the midst of this, what kind of connection between "things" and "society" should we cherish? I wanted to think about this together with everyone, focusing on the thoughts, perspectives, or perhaps wishes that we must not lose. That is how this started.

Our first guest for this commemorative series is Shohei Koyama, who founded "Jiyucho," a place where you can send letters to your future self.

The note about SEVEN THREE is here

The thoughts we want to deliver, beyond the "things" themselves

Ozaki: Mr. Koyama, thank you for joining us as the first guest of the SEVEN THREE magazine.

Koyama: Thank you for having me!

Ozaki: I run a pearl business because my grandfather is a pearl farmer, but are you a letter shop owner, Mr. Koyama?

Koyama: Well, I suppose I am a poet and a letter shop owner. "Jiyucho" and "Poetic Cafe Futo", which I opened in Kuramae, Tokyo, are shops where you can write letters to your future self one year from now. Futo is a space where you can spend time more leisurely while enjoying poetry and cafe menu items.

Ozaki: What made you decide to start a letter shop?

Koyama: When I reread the poems and essays I had written, I felt as if they were letters from my past self. Because they were my own words, I felt encouraged and relieved. That experience became the origin of Jiyucho.

I believe that the letters everyone writes here are also a form of craftsmanship for themselves.

Ozaki: I see, letters are craftsmanship for oneself... That's true.

Koyama: Actually, I feel that the act of writing a letter to yourself changes your life a little even before it arrives a year later. If that is the case, I am happy.

Ozaki: I feel that you and I are the same in that we don't create services or things just to sell them. As for "things," I mainly create pearl jewelry, but SEVEN THREE was born from the desire to support my 88-year-old grandfather who is still actively farming pearls, so it's not just about buying materials cheaply, selling them in bulk, and making a profit.

While it is important to turn it into money as a social cycle, I think there is nothing happier than being able to deliver thoughts that go beyond the role of jewelry.

Koyama: I haven't met him in person yet, but I remember your grandfather's face because he appears in media and on social media (laughs). I haven't had much contact with pearls either, and I didn't know that pearls of various colors and shapes were born. It's wonderful, isn't it, the goldfish pearls.

Ozaki: I'm so happy! Since I handle pearls that are each different in shape, I sometimes receive comments from customers like, 'I realized that everyone's unique individuality is fine as it is, and that it's beautiful.'
With semi-custom orders, people who pick them up don't just say, 'Wow, it's a pearl, how lovely and beautiful,' but choose them based on what they feel when they see and touch them, so I feel very fortunate to be able to engage in this kind of craftsmanship.

Koyama: I think it reaches the customers properly because you are wrapping 'correctness' in 'happiness'.

Finding your own unique pearl is exciting, isn't it? Making wax seals is also fun.

For example, when you try to convey 'correct' things directly, such as environmental conservation or the importance of self-dialogue, it surprisingly doesn't always get through. But when 'happiness' comes first, the 'correctness' is also conveyed.

What kind of story do you want to be a character in?

Koyama: Recently, I've come to think that when starting something, the awareness of 'what kind of story do I want to participate in?' is very important.

Ozaki: What kind of story do you want to participate in?

Koyama: Everyone can view their life as a story, but is that story trying to move society in a better direction? Like you, Ozaki-san, there is your grandfather's story from your roots, and you have joined in to enter a new chapter, and I think the story continues to be connected by the hands of your customers.

That is why it matters whether what you create is something that will be spoken of by the recipient. 'Craftsmanship that becomes someone's story' is very precious. I think Seven Three's pearls are exactly that.

Ozaki: Thank you. The fact that you are creating a place to write letters to your future self is also participating in many people's stories, isn't it? Because people who want to write letters to themselves while carrying some kind of thought every day are gathering in this place.

Koyama: Indeed. This entire wall is the stories of everyone who has come here.

Ozaki: It's an amazing sight...

Koyama: There are many stories in the world that are never told dramatically, and those people must have wonderful daily lives, but they are often summarized with phrases like 'everyone is doing their best.' So, as what kind of character do you want to exist in a story? Or, what kind of people do you want to participate in your story? I think this is also an important question in craftsmanship.

Craftsmanship that is fading and craftsmanship that is growing

Koyama: The service of delivering letters is only completed when it reaches the customer's hands a year later, but aren't pearls also something that requires a lot of time?

Ozaki: It takes about four years for a pearl to be made.

Koyama: Four years!?

Ozaki: It's a long time, isn't it? Pearls are created when a craftsman performs a surgery-like procedure to insert a nucleus, which becomes the base of the pearl, into the mother oyster, and the nacre layers wrap around that nucleus.

Ozaki: First, it takes about two years for the mother oyster to grow to the size of a palm, and then another one to two years for the pearl to form after the nucleus is inserted. Even if you raise them in exactly the same way, the production volume varies by year because it is influenced by the natural environment, and humans cannot control it.

Koyama:I see... so, for example, you can't just say, 'I'm famous now, so let's make a bunch and ship three times the usual amount!' You have to start creating with the next four years in mind...

It's true that many people can now create things easily, but I think manufacturing that takes time to complete is actually decreasing. Tools that make it easy to create things are developing and will continue to do so, but in the end, the only time that gets shortened is the time that can be shortened.

Even if there is talk about AI automatically creating PowerPoint presentations or finishing Excel entries, it's not like you can make a pearl that takes four years to grow in 30 minutes. A letter written to your future self in a year wouldn't mean anything if it arrived tomorrow, right? (laughs)

Ozaki:That's for sure (laughs). Because the passage of one year is what cultivates the meaning and value.

Koyama:It would be interesting if, instead of just preferring time-saving and simplification, there were more and more manufacturing that becomes interesting or creates emotional value precisely because it takes time. I like that kind of manufacturing, and I want to cherish it.

***

In the first part, we focused on the relationship between manufacturing and the stories of the people behind it. In the second part, we will focus on how the brand has grown, the process, and its connection to society.

Thank you for reading this far! I hope you enjoy the second part as well.

<Interview/Writing/ Yuki Hoshi>

Jiyucho Official Website

Shiteki Kissa Futo Official Website

Shohei Koyama Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shoheikoya/