KESENNUMA, Miyagi Prefecture--Spared from the tsunami spawned by the Great East Japan Earthquake, kimono that had been in two women's families here for generations will be getting a second life as handcrafted items at a French market in March.
KESENNUMA, Miyagi Prefecture--Spared from the tsunami spawned by the Great East Japan Earthquake, kimono that had been in two women's families here for generations will be getting a second life as handcrafted items at a French market in March.
The handicrafts from kimono made by Yuriko Shimizu, 63, and Hiroko Kida, 54, earned high marks from a French company and others, and they have been selected to set up a stall at a "marche" (market) in the Provence region of France in March.
The tsunami of March 11, 2011, completely destroyed their homes, located near the Kesennuma fishing port. The only structures remaining were their sturdy stone storehouses, which protected their ancestors' kimono.
In the fall of 2011, the women considered giving gifts to relatives and friends who had helped them, but living in temporary housing, they had nothing to give.
Under these spartan circumstances, they made gifts of coasters and drawstring pouches from the kimono, which pleased the recipients.
"Maybe we can sell them?" Shimizu and Kida thought.
Shimizu had worked at a hotel that had shut down due to the tsunami while Kida is a homemaker.
They had plenty of time to make products to sell, but they were novices at running a business and had no idea how to sell their products.
The women consulted with the local chamber of commerce and industry, which introduced them to a showroom shop for Kesennuma goods in Tokyo's Ginza district.
In November 2011 their handicrafts, including pincushions, tissue box covers and business card cases, began to appear in the shop.
In August 2012 a big order came from a Tokyo-based organization, wanting them to make prizes for golf tournaments. Due to this and other good fortune, the women have made around 1,000 items thus far.
Their journey to France began with a marche held in Kesennuma last October.
An NPO in the city invited the women to enter an entrepreneur contest also being held at that time.
They were uncertain, but decided to enter because "we could go to France if we won."
The organizers, which included a French cosmetics maker, scored the contestants on novelty, profitability and personality, among other factors.
Seven of the 24 competing groups went on to give presentations the following day, among whom was Hodoru, the name of the two women's business.
It was late at night when Shimizu and Kida were told they would give their presentation.
They then thought about what to say. The next day they gave it their best shot: "We want to remodel the storehouse into a workshop, and we want to expand our business with people who have the same feeling as us."
The women were applauded for using items that survived the earthquake and tsunami using kimono, something evocative of Japan, and were selected to go to France.
That "same feeling" that Shimizu and Kida put into their presentation is expressed by the word "hodoru," which in the Kesennuma area means "to get warm," as in warm-hearted.
"We would like the French, too, to know about how we are keeping so active through the warm-hearted support of others," Shimizu says.